So, one more boozy fruit post to come (cherries!) but I thought I would interrupt the series with a couple of luscious tomatoes. Because, why not? It’s fall and the fruit recipes won’t likely be used by anybody til next summer. Again: this is all due to my maternity leave getting in the way of keeping on top of seasonality! Still, since my little man was born three months ago, I’ve managed to make pickles, one batch of jam, to can peaches, cherries, figs and tomatoes – a heck of a lot less than last year, but not so shabby after all.

But I digress.

Where were we? Oh yes: the fruit that is forever mistaken for a veggie.

The bright red thing so often smashed and simmered into sauce, then paired with pasta. And such an easy thing to can. Two weeks ago I went with my friend N. to her parents’ lovely farmhouse in Prince Edward County, a bucolic agricultural and wine region halfway between Toronto and Montreal (a little closer to TO). We brought two bushels of Roma tomatoes with us and got busy with a giant pot and her mom’s big, hand-cranked food mill.

We did simple canned whole tomatoes and a bunch of tomato sauce. It was interesting to see our two canning styles come out over the weekend. N. comes from a big family (she’s one of six siblings) and they all seem to can and cook with passion and by following word-of-mouth family recipes and loose instructions handed down by her mum. I, one the other hand, am a bit of a recipe nerd and I follow all the latest, paranoid canning instructions from the latest canning books (i.e., I add lemon juice to my canned tomatoes, I process my jams in a boiling water bath, never re-use lids etc. – all things old school canners don’t seem to bother with).

So we made the sauce the way N.’s family’s being doing it for ages (no lemon juice) and the canned tomatoes my way (with about a tbsp bottled lemon juice in each jar) because supposedly tomatoes may not be acidic enough for water bath canning. And the reason why it’s bottled and not fresh is that that’s the only way to get the right amount of acidity as it varies from lemon to lemon. On which side of the debate do you stand? Lemon juice or no lemon juice? Does no lemon juice seem like reckless endangerment to you? Or does lemon juice seem like modern paranoia?

Anyway, here goes with the recipes, in pretty huge quantities (feel free to halve or quarter):

Canned whole tomatoes

48-50 lbs ripe Roma tomatoes (1 bushel)

About 1.5 cups bottled lemon juice (maybe more, maybe less), or 1 tbsp per jar

OK, use your biggest pot to bring some water to a boil. In batches, boil your tomatoes for about a minute, then plunge them into ice water, strain them and peel and remove that chunky white stem bit with a pairing knife. Spoon them into hot, clean jars (running them through the dishwasher is easy) and pour enough of the boiling water you briefly cooked them in to come to about a 1/2 inch head space. Add about 1tbsp of bottled lemon juice to each jar (if you are so inclined), and perhaps a basil leaf. Process in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. We got 25 liters of these (15 one-liter and 20 500-ml jars.

N.’s tomato sauce

48-50 lbs tomatoes

1 head of garlic, minced

1 large bunch of basil, chopped

About 1 cup of bottled lemon juice, or 1 tbsp per jar

Salt to taste

Halve and boil your tomatoes for about two minutes to loosen skins. Drain them, put them through a food mill to remove skins and seeds, then pour the tomato pulp into a very, very large pot (we used two) along with minced garlic and chopped basil. Cook for about 45 minutes, stirring continuously to reduce. Keep adding salt until you get the taste you like, then pour your sauce into hot clean jars, leaving 1/2 inch head space. Process in a boiling water bath for 40 minutes. We got 16 liters of sauce (8 one-liter and 16 500-ml jars).