Two freezers here too, and both are quite full. I also have a lot of big metal shelving in my basement and most are packed with boxes of jars filled with tomatoes, pickles, jellies, pepper spread, and anything else I can. Thats a LOT of tomatoes for a pot of sauce! The main reason your sauce tastes better when home made is because its canned in mostly glass. Store bought, in metal cans, tends to taste metallic, packed in jars is close, but it too has additives to give it more shelf life, and stability. The next few weeks, I plan to have all frozen vegetable dinners, just to reduce some of my freezer inventory. Today, its left over roasted chicken that will be made into chicken pies for the freezer.

I used about 12 quarts of tomatoes and added 3 - 4 pounds of meatballs and sausage. Cooked it for four to six hours and froze the rest.

Making sauce for an army? ;)

What all goes into your sauce? What ingredients keep it from being safely canned? Any way it could be canned instead of just canning the plain tomatoes in the summer? Then all you'd have to do would be to add the meat and cook for an hour or so before serving. Would eliminate the middle step.

Dave

Yum! Sauce from home grown tomatoes. Congrats!! I remember my first time making sauce from my tomatoes and how good it was. Same for my first batch of chili.

Hearing you talk about your sauce made me think of my Grandma Rosa. She'd make this HUGE pot of sauce loaded with meatballs and sausage. Never been able to make it the same myself. Guess it's that special "grandma" touch.

Dave - I don't cook often but when I do - I do it well!!! My sauce is very simple. And everyone that has ever tasted it says it is the best they had. I am not bragging here. The trick was passed down to me by my great grandmother. In the past, I used Tutta Rose Crushed Tomatoes with Basil. And did nothing more than add some salt, pepper, basil and meat. And still made a better sauce than anyone.

Now, with using my own tomatoes, I used the same princeples. But since I couldn't can the tomatoes with basil, I added alot of basil. Some salt and Pepper. And added meat. I took a meatball recipe from the "Soprano's Cookbook" but used half ground beef and half pork for the meatballs. I swear by this. The meatballs are so much better. My mom does all beef. And her meatballs are so heavy. The ground pork lightens them up a bit and gives the sauce a better flavor. I also added a few links of browned italian sausage.

So on that note - yes, I did cook for an army but I froze several quarts. And with fresh tomatoes, I don't think I could have made a better sauce.

I am not sure how I can do this with less tomatoes, cook it for a few hours and still get the same flavor, but I am going to experiment this winter. I'll keep you posted!!!

Meatballs do need bread crumbs added to be tender, as well as an egg or two, and maybe even some grated cheese. Oregano and/or thyme are also a great spices to use with tomatoes in a sauce. All the commercially canned tomatoes that come from Italy are highly taxed (double the price) unless they are packed in puree instead of just tomato juice. A sauce always seems to taste better after the second day. Its cooked, cooled, then heated and served the next day and it has a much smoother taste.