Katie's Tomato Sauce (Pizza, Spaghetti, etc.)

About: This is adapted from my Mom's recipe. Mostly, I've just changed how I measure stuff, and tried to make it into cups or pounds instead of a #count because it's hard to know what the equivalent of "30 tomatoes" is if you have a mix of different sizes and types of tomatoes. So keep in mind that this might not be perfect and that my sauce probably tastes a little different from year to year. But it's basically the same!

ingredients:

• 16-18 C Drained tomatoes from about 15 lbs of tomatoes.

• 5 C chopped bell peppers (any color)

• 6 C chopped yellow onions

• 2 Tbs minced garlic

• 2.5 Tbs Italian Seasoning

• 4 bay leaves

• Celery (optional? My brother doesn't like celery, so my Mom's recipe doesn't have any, but I think the original did... Let me know if you use some and if you like it!)

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• 2 Tbs + 1 tsp salt (you can start with just 2 Tbs, and then add more if needed)

• 3/4 C. vinegar

• 1 C brown sugar

Instructions:

1. Wash, peel, and drain tomatoes 

   • I prefer the scalding method, which involves putting a few washed tomatoes in boiling water for about a minute, then shocking them in ice water and peeling them. 

   • Then I core them and chop them with a veggie chopper. 

   • After a few rounds of this, I empty my veggie chopper into a colander perched over a bowl (or you could just drain it right into the sink). 

   • I let them drain and smoosh them around to get off excess juice before putting them into my big cooking pot.

2. Chop peppers, onions, and garlic and add them to the pot. (I use pre-minced garlic and my veggie chopper for the peppers and onions)

3. Add Italian seasoning and bay leaves and bring to a simmer for at least 30 minutes stirring occassionally, but depending on how thick you want your sauce it could be much longer. I think I probably do mine for about an hour... I watch the line of where the sauce started and it usually goes down an inch or two then I call it ready!

4. Pick out the bay leaves and blend the sauce. I use my immersion blender for this, but you could do it in batches using a regular blender.

5. Add the remaining ingredients (salt, brown sugar, and vinegar), and add more of these "flavorings" if necessary after taste testing.

6. Let simmer again for a bit to get everything hot and melded together.

7. Scoop into pint or quart jars while hot and process 20 min. for pints, 25 min. for quarts. (I probably go a little longer because it's already cooked and mushy, so it's not like I'm trying to preserve the shape of anything). 

MAKES: I'm not sure, I'll have to update this next year... if I have extra, I use it that day or warm it back up right before processing it.