BY JULIA DI MARCELLO

Believe it or not, tis’ the season for canning tomatoes. During this time of year where the summer season is about to end and we are slowly setting foot into the fall season — it’s the essential time to can tomatoes.

For as long as I can remember, making tomato sauce every year around the month of August and September was a must. My brother and I would wake up early in the morning and head over to my grandparent’s house where the tomato factory takes place in their Flushing, Queens backyard. 

My family has machinery that allows them to can tomatoes in bulk. Usually, we make 80-100 mason jars filled with sauce in one day. We make so many because like any other Italian-American family, we have pasta and red sauce with our Sunday dinner every week. Clearly, many jars are a necessity for every week’s gathering and then some extra jars are needed for other meals within the week.

For some families, it may not be ideal to make a bulk amount of jars like this. That’s why today I’ll share with you how the Di Marcello family cans tomatoes, and just how you can do the same yourself from the comfort of your own kitchen or backyard. 

The first thing you need — plum tomatoes. No other tomatoes but these. You want to rinse them off, and prepare them for boiling. The goal when boiling is to have the tomatoes reach a very soft squishy feeling. Usually after 20 minutes the tomatoes are ready to go.

Scoop out the tomatoes from their pot and make sure the tomatoes drain as much as they can. My grandfather utilizes an old laundry hamper as a drainer. He dumps all of the tomatoes in the container, and the openings of the hamper allow the tomatoes to drain its water. The more liquid that is drained, the better it is. Nobody wants a watery sauce.

As the tomatoes are draining, go ahead and prepare the mason jars with basil. 3-4 leaves per jar is ideal. After draining, move onto pureeing the tomatoes. It’s sauce time finally! When all of the tomatoes have been pureed, move on to filling up the prepared mason jars. Close the lids as tight as you can before we move on to boiling them. 

The boiling of the jars allows the sauce to cook slightly and to seal their lids at the same time. The seal prevents the jars from going bad since it will be another year until we make a batch again. After 20/25 minutes of boiling the jars, take them off the heat and allow them to cool. Finally, store them on your basement’s tomato sauce shelf and your tomato canning day has now ended. 

My family purchased about seven cases of tomatoes, that equals a lot of jars. With a regular kitchen stove pot, plum tomatoes, jars, basil, and a blender or puree machine, you can create tomato sauce yourself at the comfort of your home by following these steps. Feel free to make as many or as little jars as you please. 

Whether you call your sauce just sauce, or gravy, enjoy it with pasta, pizza, and any food dish of your desire. 

Tony definitely needs a jar of sauce for his Spicy Rigatoni dish. 

Ciao!