After a weird spring here in Albuquerque where it rained almost everyday (remember this is the high desert) the tomatoes in the garden are finally ripe! Of course, they all ripen at the same time… so what do you do with them? Make sauce and can them. This year I experimented by planting a new type of small tomato that looks like a yellow pear. Little did I realize that this plant would take over the tomato bed and produce a ton of little yellow tomatoes. So why not make them into a garlic basil sauce for later in the winter? I modified a Ball recipe for my Garlic Basil sauce – if you want the original recipe you can find it on the website or if you want more canning recipes check this Ball preserves book out.
First thing I did was cut 10 lbs of tomatoes up into quarters or halves depending on the size of the tomato. I used a variety of tomatoes for my sauce, since they all are coming ripe at that same time.
I then cut up an onion and 4 garlic cloves that were minced and sautéed.
While the onion and garlic cloves were sautéing, I baked the tomatoes for 20 minutes at 425°.
I combined the tomatoes and garlic/onion mixture together and used the vitamix to blend it into a smooth sauce. As an aside – I absolutely love the Vitamix and seriously don’t know how I survived without it! – The tomato peel and seeds all blended smoothly so need need to strain it.
I added 3 tbsp of basil and then put everything back on the stove for an hour or so and let it cook down about halfway. I started processing by glass jars, making sure they were hot and ready to go when the sauce was ready. I transferred the sauce the glass jars with 1 tbsp lemon in pint size jars and filled them up. The 10 lbs of tomatoes made 8 pint size jars.
