Greening the Tomato Sauce Process

Something so basic, can be so green.

I have always admired my dear friend Paul’s  homemade tomato sauce.   He is an amazing cook and one of the first ones I call if I don’t know how to prepare something.  He knows when I ask him to bring a dish for a party that there is an underwritten rule that he comes with his fabulous  ziti and an extra can of tomato sauce for me.

Last year, I tried to make my own sauce by scouring the Internet looking for easy to make hearty tomato sauce recipes.  Last year, I wrote an article about my unsuccessful attempt to make a Ragu-like sauce.  My kids are so use to eating sauce from a can that they have no idea what a fresh tomato sauce should taste like. Yes, I know this is sad.

I asked my readers to tell me their  favorite tomatoes sauce  recipes  to take me out of my sauce-less misery.  I did not receive a lot of replies, but the article was read a lot.  Perhaps, there are others who are part of the hopelessly sauce-less group or are members of  the picky kids, I-hate-every-food-you-make-me group.

So, one day, I coaxed Paul in to coming over to help me make sauce the way his mama taught him. I was so excited.  He brought with him his manual tomato press, which looked like a small stainless steel concrete mixer.

“What was this for?” I implored, pointing at this stainless contraption.  Paul replied, “to remove the tomato skins; otherwise the sauce will be bitter.”  (Hmmm, I thought. Perhaps, this why my sauce was not so good last year …)

He threw in my heirloom sausage tomatoes, which resemble plum tomatoes, one by one.  He cranked the press and squeezed out tomato pulp.  This was the first time I had grown this type of tomato thinking that my ordinary eating tomato may not be good for a hearty sauce.  The sausage tomatoes did not have a lot of water, so there was much more pulp.

After we were done, my sauce tasted pretty good, and I was hooked. I wanted a tomato press, but as I watched Paul, it looked like alot of hard work cranking that press.  Paul mentioned during our cooking class that I could buy an electric tomato press.  This was for me!

I had four eager sausage tomato plants producing like crazy and fall was right around the corner.  I turned to my savvy, thrifty husband and told him to find me an electric press.  Over the next couple of weeks, I harvested the tomatoes and froze them on the aluminum tray in the freezer.  When they were frozen, I put them in bags since space was limited.  (Don’t worry, I washed them for reuse next year.)

A few weeks later, a box was perched at the front door.  “What’s this?” I questioned.  My husband told me it was my tomato press.  You would have thought Ed McMahon had showed up at my door with a $1 million dollar check from American Family Publishers since I was so excited.  I rushed the box into the kitchen, torn it open, and pulled out my new spanking…

“Wait a minute!  This is the same tomato press Paul has. It is manual one!” I shrieked.  Devastated that I could not flaunt my new electric-”I can fry bacon in the morning and bring home the dough at night”-wunder tomato press which makes  a zillion pots of sauce with a flip of a switch… Was I not clear?  The manual one would be too hard for a southern flower like me to use.

Not skipping a beat, my husband said, “are you kidding.  I was not going to buy you an electric one!”   (See the one on Amazon.com.  Pretty amazing looking.)  He continued, “they cost over $200!”

“So, how much does did this stainless steel beauty cost?” I questioned.  I wavered between not sure if I should be mad at him giving him the ” my time is valuable too, and oh I forgot,  I am a woman stare, but at the same time thinking  maybe an electric press  was a little frivolous.

He replied, “$50.00.  Big difference.”  End of story. I  knew I was not going to win this argument.

So, I looked at the bright side and said, at least I will be making my sauce in a more eco-friendly way rather than using an electric sucking fantasy appliance.

As I mentioned earlier, I lined up the tomatoes on a tray and stuck them in the freezer.  By freezing the tomatoes and then defrosting them, I did not have to  par-boil them to remove their skins.  Not only does this save time, it saves using water and gas to boil the water.  I had at least 6 bags of tomatoes defrosted to make one pot of tomato sauce.  (By the way, you can freeze cabbage.  This eliminates the need to boil it to make the leaves soft if you are making stuffed cabbage.)

I easily  peeled the skin off the tomatoes.  If you are wondering why I am in my jacket, if I recall,  the tomatoes were cold or I might have been cold.   I live in my jacket in the winter since I am always cold.

The tomato press is hooked onto the side of the countertop. I threw some into the tomato press to separate the seeds from the pulp. The press wiggles so I have to keep one forearm pressing on the top of the tomato press to keep it from moving. I used my other arm to crank the press. After a few times of cranking I realized that I was making indentation marks on my arm and it started to hurt.

The next batches my husband took over and look at the beautiful puree.

The seeds and some of the pulp were discharged to the back of the tomato press. Paul had taught me to put this leftover pulp  back through the press two times to get as much sauce as I could.

We processed about 8 cups of sauce out of four bags of tomatoes.

Clean-up was another matter. The inside of the tomato press contains pulp that is tightly wound around a spring in the center bar.  I had to take a toothbrush to try and wiggle the pieces out of the spring.  It was a little time consuming and frustrating at times.

I notice the next day that underneath my forearm was black and blue from pressing on the tomato press!  “Take a look at my arm! I squealed showing my husband my arm. My husband was so surprised since he thought operating the press was so easy.  In response, I told him that he has now been elevated to head press person and is in charge of all grinding chores. How can you argue with an injured southern flower?  That would just be cruel.

By Halloween, I had turned my garden into a spooky event to keep the tomato vines warm.  The weeks to follow, very few tomatoes turned red, and I was forced to pick the green ones to ripen in the house.

I used shallow cartons to store the tomatoes. I put a layer of newspaper on the bottom, positioned assorted apples amongst the tomatoes to help speed up the ripening process, and than another layer of newspaper on top. I checked them every day to see which ones were spoiling. Pictured above is one of the last boxes with the few remaining tomatoes that I tried to ripen. Last year, I tried the newspaper idea and most spoiled.  This year, only about 20 tomatoes ripened from six cartons.  The larger tomatoes spoiled first.  If anyone has success in ripening green tomatoes indoors let me know.

Did my kids like the sauce? Not really.  They said it tasted funny.  My adult friends liked it.  I should have told them that my friend Paul, made it.  It would have received rave reviews from my kids.

Do you grow or use a special tomato to make sauce?

Have a favorite recipe?

Have a tomato sauce story?

Similar Posts:

• Join the Tomato Sauce Challenge!
• Is Your Veggie Garden Spooky?
• Get Your Red Hot Heirloom Tomatoes and Veggies
• Could Chemicals or Food Cause Son’s ADD?
• Planning Meals Around your Garden: Stuffed Kale Rolls

Tagged as: creating tomato sauce without using much energy, greening tomato sauce, heirloom tomatoes, low impact & tomato sauce, organic food, organic gardening, tomato sauce, tomato sauce & lower carbon footprint, using tomato press, using tomato stainer