Tomato Sauce (red sauce)

My tomatoes are ripe and my friends tomatoes are ripe.  Everyones tomatoes are ripe.  I ended up with another sink-load of tomatoes.  All kinds of tomatoes.  Red ones, yellow ones, pink ones, green striped ones.  Tomatoes everywhere.

Other than throwing them at my kiddos (it's nearing the end of summer, no one would blame me), I needed to can them.  Again.

This is a good sauce.  You can use it for many things - pasta, pizza, add meat later, whatever.  I like this one.  It's chunky.  I like chunky.  It has a lot of veggies.  I like veggies.  I don't peel the tomatoes because of political and possibly religious objection, but the peel just gets lost in the chunkiness of the sauce.  You won't even know the skins are there.

This recipe yielded 7 quarts.  Told you I had a lot of tomatoes.  Feel free to cut it down.  Use those math skills.  You can do it.

Tomato Sauce

4 onions, chopped

8 cloves of garlic, minced

8 carrots, shredded

2 bell peppers (I use red, orange or yellow.  I don't like green.), chopped

8 bay leaves

1/2 cup fresh parsley (or 2 1/2 tablespoons dried)

1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped (or 2 1/2 tablespoons dried)

4 Tablespoons fresh oregano (or 1 tablespoon dried)

6 quarts (24 cups) fresh tomatoes, chopped

4 (6 ounces each) cans tomato paste

4 Tablespoons honey

salt and pepper to taste

lemon juice or vinegar

Saute onion and garlic in a splash of vegetable oil until tender.  Add carrots, peppers, and all the herbs.  Stir it up.  Add tomatoes, paste, honey and salt and pepper - you can always add more salt and pepper later.  Simmer for about 1 hour.  Remove bay leaves and serve, freeze or can.

To can, ladle into hot, sterilized jars to within 1/2 inch of top.  Add 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar per pint to assure acidity, seal with sterilized lids and process full jars in boiling water bath for 35 minutes.