Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce

You may have seen on Facebook the rather large box of tomatoes my husband brought home from the Farm Market. Our tomatoes didn’t do very well and I wasn’t able to preserve as much sauce as I usually do. However after spending all day in the kitchen my pantry is now filled with 15 quarts of Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce. I love this recipe, it is delicious just heated up and served with pasta. Before doing all this canning there was only one jar left in the pantry, it is such a nice feeling having my shelves well stocked once again. If you have any tomatoes left give it a try, you’ll be glad you did! By the way when I made this recipe I multiplied it times 7!

Chunky Basil Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:

8 cups coarsely chopped peeled tomatoes (I dip the tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 seconds and then place in a sink of cold water to help loosen the skins)

1 cup chopped onion
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2/3 cup red wine
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
½ cup chopped fresh basil
1 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp pickling salt
½ tsp sugar
1 can (6 oz) tomato paste

Directions:

Combine the tomatoes, onion, garlic, wine, wine vinegar, basil, salt, sugar and tomato paste in a very large stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 40 minutes or until the mixture reaches the desired consistency, stirring frequently.

Remove your hot jars from the water bath canner and ladle the sauce into jars to within ½ inch of rim. Process 35 minutes for pint jars and 40 minutes for quart jars.

Makes eight cups.

This recipe is from my favorite canning book Small Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp & Margaret Howard.