Homemade Tomato Sauce
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott/Not Quite Nigella
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 3.5 hours
Makes approximately 1.5 litres or 1.3 quarts of sauce
- Oil for frying
- 3 large onions, peeled and sliced
- 1.5 tablespoons whole cloves
- 1.5 tablespoons ground ginger
- 2.8 kgs/6.2lbs tomatoes, washed and sliced (no need to peel)
- 2 large Granny Smith apples, cored and chopped
- 80g/2.82ozs. salt
- 4 cups white vinegar
- 280g/9.89ozs. brown sugar
Step 1 - Saute the onions in the oil in a large pot. Add the rest of the ingredients except for the sugar. Simmer on medium heat with the lid on for 3 hours. Check on it every hour and stir it around and in the last hour add the sugar and press the tomatoes so they are all squashed.
Step 2 - Remove from heat and blitz with an immersion blender. Pass through a fine sieve pressing down so get all of the flavour and liquid out of the skins and seeds. I ended up with about 1/4 cup of skin and seeds by the end as I pressed once and pressed the residue one more time. Don't discard the skins and seeds - they are actually really flavoursome and Mr NQN commented that they were delicious in his sandwich (and he rarely comments about his lunch!).
Step 3 - Place back on the heat and simmer with the lid on for 30 minutes-taste this now for flavour and add more sugar if needed. The original recipe calls for more than three times the amount of sugar but both Mr NQN and I loved it with less. Meanwhile, sterilise your bottles and lids. I made a big mistake when I took off the rubber stopper but left the plastic bit on. Well it melts so use metal lids and glass bottles. Wash thoroughly and place on a baking tray in a 180C/350F oven for 10 minutes.
Step 4 - When the sauce is ready, carefully remove the hot bottles and lids from the oven and place a funnel over the opening and ladle in the sauce. Be careful not to use cold or room temperature bottles, the hot sauce will cause the bottles to crack due to the temperature difference. Leave 3/4 of inch or so space on top. Using gloves, seal the lid on tight and then place in the sink upside down for 10-15 minutes.
This will create a seal. After 15 minutes, if the metal lid doesn't press down then you've got a seal and you now have your own home made tomato sauce that doesn't need refrigeration so you can give it to friends! It will last up to a year in the pantry but once opened you will need to refrigerate it.