As I said in my previous post, this was an easy way to do something productive with a 10-lb basket of tomatoes at the end of the season.

Fresh tomato sauce – this is from about 10 lb. tomatoes, mostly Romas & Early Girls

The add-ins: some of this summer’s crop of garlic, about a dozen heads of Italian Purple, a hardneck variety that I’m using mostly because the hardnecks don’t hold in the pantry as long as softneck varieties. It doesn’t hurt that it’s Italian. A couple of cans of tomato paste for a thicker sauce & a deeper flavor (I ended up using 3 cans); organic fennel seed; Mexican oregano, which I like because it comes as whole leaves & stems, all you need to do is crush it between your hands & pick out the twigs; & fresh Italian parsley from the herb garden. And sea salt to taste — in this batch, about 3 Tbsp.

Sautéing the tomato paste in a little olive oil before I add the minced garlic.

Adding the raw tomato sauce, fennel, oregano & parsley; threw in a couple of bay leaves too. Simmer for maybe half an hour until I like the flavor enough to call it done. Once finished, a splash of red wine vinegar to rev up the tanginess &, incidentally, acidify it for canning. Then pack into hot, clean pint-&-a-half jars & into a pressure canner for 10 minutes. I use the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s guidelines (http://nchfp.uga.edu/index.html) as my go-to online reference.

Done!