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In our household, we eat quite a lot of canned tomatoes. It goes in stews, it is added to Tuscan Chicken, it is used in pasta sauces, and it is the base of our pizzas.
Every month I would add about 4 tins of tomatoes to our shopping basket but when I started to grow my own tomatoes, it dawned on me that the tin tomatoes were basically just water with red goop. The flavour was bland, it changed the way food tasted, and essentially I didn’t know what else was in it.
I decided it was time to learn how to make my own, and after going through a few recipes, and adding my own twists, I came up with my own version of tinned tomatoes. This recipe has no added water, and no added preservatives. It is all just natural goodness, and if you seal it right, you can add it to your pantry where it will keep for months (if you can resist eating them for that long!)
Use my recipe as a base for creating your own flavours and I promise, you’ll never buy a tin of tomatoes again.
Canned Tomatoes
Ingredients
- 2 kgs Tomatoes Any kind will do
- 2 Onions Plain white is fine
- 2 cloves Garlic
- 6 leaves Fresh Basil Culinary
- 2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Black Pepper
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil For drizzling
- 1 tsp Mixed or Italian Herbs
Instructions
- Heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius
- Dice up your tomatoes, your onions, and your garlic. You can chop it up finely or chunky, the choice is yours.
- Place your tomatoes, onions and garlic in a big enough roasting pan.
- Chop up the basil and place it on top.
- Sprinkle on the salt, pepper and herbs. Then drizzle the olive oil on top of everything.
- Without covering the roasting pan, place it in the oven and let everything roast until soft.
- Wash out your jars in warm soapy water while everything is cooking.
- Remove the tomato mix when done, and either can or blend and then can. Make sure that you do this while the mixture is hot and that you fill the jar almost to the top, leaving a small space.
- Take a knife and go around the edges of the jar, removing all the air pockets. If the bottle has air bubbles, the mix can begin to ferment and go bad.
- Place the lids (wipe away any spillage on the top of the jars before doing so) and either water bath the jars or place them back into the still hot (but not on) oven to seal.
