Last month I decided to get the 2 bags of frozen whole tomatoes out of my freezer and cook them down to make pasta sauce. In case you didn’t know…YES, you can freeze tomatoes from your backyard garden! I cut the stem out, rinse them with water to remove the majority of seeds and lay them on a baking sheet to air dry for 2 hours. Then I pack them all into a large freezer bag. You can open the bag and add more tomatoes as the growing season goes along…until you have enough to do a big recipe!
You’ll need a pressure canner and basic canning supplies for this recipe. It will make approximately 8-9 pint size jars of pasta sauce. If you don’t like ground turkey…you can substitute with lean ground beef or lean ground pork. Looking for more home canning recipes? We have over 100 canning recipes right here on the TCC blog!!!
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Pasta Sauce with Ground Turkey Recipe
30 lbs. tomatoes
2 1/2 lbs. ground turkey
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup onions, finely chopped
1 cup sweet green bell pepper, finely chopped
2 Tbsp. parsley
2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning blend
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 Tbsp. oregano
2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. ground black pepper
1 tsp. olive oil
For this recipe you’ll need approximately 30 lbs. of tomatoes…fresh or frozen. Blanch them briefly 1-2 minutes to remove the skins. Rinse them under tap water to help remove the seeds. By rinsing them under the tape water I can remove 80% of the tomato seeds. Once I have the skins off…I toss them into my NINJA Blender and blend until smooth. If desired, you can pour the sauce through cheese cloth or press through a food mill to remove seeds.
In a large frying pan brown up the ground turkey until it’s done. Drain off the excess fat. Add in the garlic, onions and green bell peppers. Simmer over low heat until the veggies are slightly fork-tender, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
Next, you’ll need a large saucepan or stock pot. Combine the tomatoe puree with the meat mixture. Stir in the parsley, Italian seasoning blend, brown sugar, oregano, salt, ground black pepper and olive oil. Bring the sauce to a boil over medium-high heat and boil for 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to low.
You want to ladel the hot pasta sauce into hot glass mason jars leaving a 1″ headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe the rims of the jar clean with a cloth. Add your hot seal and the ring until it’s fingertip tight.
Place the jars in the pressure canner. Adjust the water level (according to the canner’s instructions)….mine requires 2″ of hot water in the bottom of it. Lock the lid and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Vent steam for 10 minutes, then close the vent. Continue heating to achieve 10 lbs pressure. Process the pint jars for 60 minutes. Once it’s done, turn off the heat and let the canner cool down on its own. Don’t open or touch the lid until the pressure reaches ZERO. Then unlock the lid and remove it.
Carefully transfer the hot jars to your kitchen countertop. I lay a clean, dry towel down on my countertop and place the jars on top. They need to sit there undisturbed for 12 hours to cool down. Don’t touch them. After 12 hours have passed check the seals to make sure that all jars sealed properly. If any of them didn’t seal…refrigerate and use.
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