Amanda I just washout the bottles and put into the microwave or if too many in the oven.
I squish all my tomatos first then into pot. Jan
Oh and cut some of those romas in half put on rack sprinkle with your herbs from the garden salt and pepper a little oil and dry them out in the oven on lowest setting. When still just rubbery pop into a jar fill with oil and then eat. Jan

Hi Amanda,
You're pretty much on the right track.

There are two ways to make the pasta sauce and both are almost identical.

1. Normal sauce - cut tomatoes in half and bring to boil. Then pass through The Machine, separating the pulp from the skin and seed. We add a fist-full of salt to every 10 kgs. This is then bottled with basil, oregano etc to taste. Put the basil and oregano in the bottle first.

2. Cooked sauce - is similar to what you have explained above. The difference from normal is that prior to bottling it you cook it on the stove for about 1hr. We add other (pre-simmered) vegetables to this like eggplant, capsicum and peppers but you put in it what YOU like. I wouldn't put any high-water vegetables like zucchini as they tend to just collapse over time and make the sauce watery.

Once both types are bottled you then put them in cold water bringing it up to the boil and then letting it cool down. If you have a vacola, check what it says. The method I mention is how we do it. We also put cloth between the bottles so the boiling water doesn't cause the bottles to hit each other and smash.

The difference between cooked and normal is that when you come to make the pasta the cooked one doesn't need so long to prepare (as it is already cooked).

Good luck.

Amanda, treat your jars just as you would for jam. Wash them (and lids) with soapy water, turn over on clean towel, let drip for a while. When you are nearly ready to fill them, fill up sink with boiling hot water (either from tap or kettle) and put in the jars and lids to sterilize them. You could do that in the oven, too. Or you could fill up a big pot with water and boil the jars and lids in there. Let boil/soak for a little while. Then turn over on to clean towel to let drip a little.

(Actually, I imagine you could leave out the sterilizing process as the heat in the preserving unit would kill off anything that might still be in the jars. Just make sure there is no soap in the jars/lids after washing them.)

When you put the lids on, don't tighten them as much as you would when you fill them with jam. Tight enough, but not totally tight.

Place in preserving unit and proceed as you would with ordinary Vacola jars. Just fill up the water until it is a few centimetres above the jars. Don't let the water boil. But that's the same as with the usual jars anyway.

I have no clue where The Machine is concerned. However I always imagined you could throw the whole tomatoes in the machine and they don't need any cooking first. Or maybe that is wishful thinking? So disregard the last paragraph. :)

Good luck! Show us some pictures of the end product. Yes? :)

Ummm, Spatz, I've never made jam... *blushing, looking at feet*

When I use the Vacola normally, I have to turn it to the Hold Boil" setting and leave it there. Doesn't that boil it? I've not actually taken any notice. Maybe I should get instructions for jam and do this in the oven like jam?

*Or maybe I should just go shopping instead. Much more fun. Then I wouldn't have to think about anything difficult at all.*

Amanda

make the jam, then go shopping. Come back to do the sauce. I put a clove of garlic in the bottom of the jar before the tommies.

Amanda, are you back from shopping yet?

Treat the jars and lids just as you would treat your Vacola jars and lids. Do exactly the same. Forget I said jam (you don't make jam??!!!!!???).

As these jars are (a lot) smaller than the Vacola jars, I'd say the water in the unit would start boiling sooner. My instructions specifically say NOT TO BRING TO BOIL. But mine is the foolproof unit. Plug in, put timer to 1 hour, unplug after 1 hour. However, the water in my unit starts to boil after 50 mins or so, that's when I switch off the unit and wait till the hour is over and then take out the jars.

So, it's all really easy. Forget you are using different jars. Do as you would with Vacola jars.

But do check up on that boiling matter.

Put anything you like in your jars/sauce. Herbs, garlic, salt, etc. It'll be processed well and you won't have to worry about it.

OK I'm back from dodging my responsibilities... um, I mean, doing the shopping... and ready to face the Romas.

Actually I think I'll get warmed up on a batch of ordinary chopped up ones in the big bottles. Then while that's doing it's thing I can *think* about making sauce out of the Romas and figuring out the little jars.

It's not that I *don't* make jam, but rather that I haven't *yet* because I don't know how... the first step, I think, would be figuring out how to stop my husband and sons eating all the fruit.

Amanda

Here we are.

First Roma harvest. Ten bushes out of the original twelve plants survived to produce these. There are at least as many again but they're still green. I'll have another go next week.

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After boiling them for about 20 minutes to soften them, we put them through the machine. The stuff in the white bowl is the skins and seed. I'm impressed at how dry it is - there's not much worth having in there!

The big pot is a 12 litre which is going to need reducing a lot. It's still going! Unfortunately I didn't strain off any water with an old sheet or tablecloth as per Pepino's instructions - and even when I realised I wasn't sure when I was supposed to have done it - before the machine or after?

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I still have to deal with bottling the sauce, of course... but I did put through a batch of other mixed varieties as chopped toms in juice as a warm up...

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So that's it - they're about to go in for processing - a laundry basket of Roma tomatoes will yield eleven jars of nice thick tomato and basil sauce...
(The two Vacola bottles in the background just came out for the second time, one didn't seal and the other I bumped the lid when I was getting out the first time. Grrr...)

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I'm impressed, Amanda! Thanks for documenting all your work.

That sauce in the jars looks great. Did you end up putting in any herbs?

BTW, I absolutely love your ducks!!

Amanda am I glad I read those instructions! I'm still hopeful that one day I'll beat the fruit flies & will be able to get all my jars out of storage.
I thought you put the tomatoes through the Machine RAW!!!!
It never would have occured to me to cook them first!
The sauce looks fabulous & I'm VERY jealous.

WOW Amanda. From novice to expert in one season. The Tom's look great, the photos well composed and crystal clear and the finished product superb. I would have put the Tom's through the machine raw. Thinking about it the brief cooking would soften them and help the seperation. What did the old italian lady say? Don't be afraid to use all your other excess Tom's. We used excess BBY's (I know everyone hates them)last year and they made lovely rich sauce when cooked down. No machine, no bottling outfit just freezer bags in the freezer, but still lots of lovely sauce. Don't lose the address for the machine. I would love to buy one when budget allows. Absolutely hated mashing cooked Tom's through wire mesh strainer.
Cheers Colin.

I'm not an expert in anything. Just having a go, having fun and hopefully reducing the grocery bill.

I can't freeze much cos my freezer is *really* small, barely enough to cope with week to week groceries. A decent freezer would cost a lot more than my s/h bottling set. One day...

The Machine was bought at Christmas but it was really a bribe for me not insisting on going to Rutherglen. Shamelessly corrupt I accepted the bribe. :)

The thing that did it though, was going through all the brands of tomato paste at the supermarket - not a single one of them was Australian produce. There were a couple that said "made from local and imported ingredients" - but what one earth does *that* mean? At least "Made in China" is honest!

Hi Spatz, I love my ducks too. I have real ones outside. :)

Amanda

Was meant to be a compliment not a put down. Would imagine that bottled would be better than frozen anyway.