From the demo: Saving the Season, with Kevin West (www.savingtheseason.com)
For 10 pints
Any quantity of mixed heirloom tomatoes (One word of caution: weight your mix heavily in favor of red tomatoes over lower-acid yellow ones, since the high acid content of tomatoes is what allows us to safely can them using the boiling-water method).
1 Tablespoon of bottled lemon juice ***PER PINT*** (must be bottled, not fresh, for controlled acidity)
- Prepare the tomatoes: blanch them a few at a time in a large quantity of boiling water for 1 minute, then lift out with a slotted spoon and plunge into a basin of ice water. When cool, remove them to drain but do not begin to peel until you’ve blanched them all.
- Now you need to work quickly: peel three or four tomatoes and quarter them into a pot large enough to hold your entire batch. Crush the tomatoes (I just squeeze them with my hands). You want to have enough pulp and liquid to cover the bottom of the pot. Bring to a boil.
- Once the boil has begun, continue to peel and quarter tomatoes one at a time. Press them into the boiling pot so that they heat through as quickly as possible. Stir occasionally so your pot doesn’t scorch, but maintain a steady boil. Once all the tomatoes are into the pot, boil for 10 minutes.
- Pass the tomatoes through a food mill. (I use a coarse blade because I like the texture, but use a finer blade or a Chinois if you’d prefer to strain the seeds.) Return puree to the pot.
- Return to a boil and reduce while stirring by half, or until thickened to your preference. Salt to taste—but use a fairly light hand, since you may further reduce the sauce when cooking with it later.
- Line up your clean jars. Add into each jar 1 Tablespoon of bottled lemon juice ***PER PINT.*** (I.e., a quart jar gets 2 Tablespoons lemon juice.) Ladle tomatoes into your jars, seal and process in a boiling-water bath per USDA guidelines: 35 minutes for pint jars (at sea level), 40 minutes per quart (at sea level.)
- When boiling-water bath is complete, turn off the heat and allow jars to sit in the pot of water, uncovered, for 5 minutes. This allows the pressure inside the jars to stabilize and prevents leakage when you remove the jars to cool.
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