Mike Cruz
08-29-2010, 9:23 PM
Think I made enough pasta sauce?
I'm not one to cook each night, but I will make up a bunch of something once, can or freeze it, and then just pull it out when I need it. It was about time to make up some pasta sauce again, so I had at it. I do cheat a little by starting with 3 jars of different flavored store bought sauces. Then I add 4 lbs of ground beef (local beef cattle) (browned and drained of fat before adding it to the pot), 2 lbs of regular sausage, 2 lbs of spicy Italian sausage (sausages browned and drained of fat with ground beef), a boat load of tomatoes (about 1/2 were from our plants), two large zucchini, two large squash, 2 packages of sliced mushrooms, one yellow bell pepper, one green bell pepper, and for my secret ingredients (oh, well, I'm telling you, so they aren't a secret anymore) a jar of honey and 2 cans of crushed pineapple! :eek: What? Yup, crushed pineapple.
I started at 7 this morning, and just took it off the stove at 8:30 this evening. That way, a LOT of the moisture evaporates. I like my pasta sauce thick, not all watery.
The sauce is definitely spicy but also, of course, sweet.
This batch was right on par with 19 jars. Each jar is, to me, two servings. Canning while still hot pulls the tops down when they cool and I've had them stay perfect in the fridge for 6 months, though they rarely EVER last that long around here.
So, even though I cheat a little by starting with store bought sauce, that only accounts for 3 of the 19 jars.
I'm not one to cook each night, but I will make up a bunch of something once, can or freeze it, and then just pull it out when I need it. It was about time to make up some pasta sauce again, so I had at it. I do cheat a little by starting with 3 jars of different flavored store bought sauces. Then I add 4 lbs of ground beef (local beef cattle) (browned and drained of fat before adding it to the pot), 2 lbs of regular sausage, 2 lbs of spicy Italian sausage (sausages browned and drained of fat with ground beef), a boat load of tomatoes (about 1/2 were from our plants), two large zucchini, two large squash, 2 packages of sliced mushrooms, one yellow bell pepper, one green bell pepper, and for my secret ingredients (oh, well, I'm telling you, so they aren't a secret anymore) a jar of honey and 2 cans of crushed pineapple! :eek: What? Yup, crushed pineapple.
I started at 7 this morning, and just took it off the stove at 8:30 this evening. That way, a LOT of the moisture evaporates. I like my pasta sauce thick, not all watery.
The sauce is definitely spicy but also, of course, sweet.
This batch was right on par with 19 jars. Each jar is, to me, two servings. Canning while still hot pulls the tops down when they cool and I've had them stay perfect in the fridge for 6 months, though they rarely EVER last that long around here.
So, even though I cheat a little by starting with store bought sauce, that only accounts for 3 of the 19 jars.