Raise Your Garden

Musings on the Seedier Side

in Edible Garden

Making tomato sauce with fresh Roma tomatoes

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This post contains affiliate links. This means if you make a purchase through my link I make a small commission at no additional cost to yourself. Thank you for being such wonderful and gracious readers. I am truly thankful for you all! ​
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Rainy days are my cue to be productive inside the house. And not only was it rainy but super cold this past weekend.
Some light went on in my brain and I managed to harvest my Roma tomatoes before the rain struck. It was fun gathering with my two girls who were actually helpful in this task.
Besides, I like the idea of passing on family traditions. 
And I dislike waste, so if I didn’t harvest the tomatoes when I did, I would have putzed around for weeks and they likely would have just rotted out in the garden.
Waiting to harvest creates a whole lot more work and waste as the season wanes on and the tomatoes get black spots then rot.
Didn’t grow enough tomatoes this year to make sauce? How about picking up a bushel at a roadside stand or farmer’s market for $5. They go cheap if you can find them.
So come along on my sauce making journey. It’ll be fun! 
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This Victorio food strainer and sauce maker was my grandmothers and I sort of inherited it when I bought her house. My other grandma also used a Victorio, too.
Now my mom uses that one to make sauce. So I guess you can say our family loves this Victorio strainer. And it’s one of the best.
Use it to make jams, sauces and juices. Such a time-saver for the gardener who is serious about food preservation.
This one is at least 30 years old and it’s still in excellent shape and works like a dream.
 
Once you try it with tomatoes, you’ll want to branch out and use it with grapes, pumpkin, applesauce and even salsa. (You’ll need extra attachments). No seeds and very little waste. 
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First, wash those tomatoes very well. Dirt, slugs and grime don’t taste very good and will taint the flavor to the sauce.
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Don’t hesitate to use that heavy spray! Go ahead and use a brush to scrub the tomatoes or even your bare hands like I do to ensure no yucky stuff is stuck on those tomatoes.
 
Examine the tomatoes from every angle. Slugs are not tasty. 
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Setup is important. Make sure you have a good cutting board, knives and numerous bowls handy.

You’ll need them! Having plenty of rags at arms reach is vital as well for spills and leakage. The Victorio is wonderful but it will leak. You want to be prepared for the worst!

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There’s always a few rotten spots on your tomatoes.

Still, don’t throw the whole tomato away. Just cut off the icky spots to compost later.

I love how I can still use the tomatoes with blossom end rot for sauce. 

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I like to cut my tomatoes in quarters but halved works fine, too.
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It’s convenient to have two bowls. One for the rotten bits that will get composted and one for the good quartered or halved tomatoes that will get processed.

True Fact! I smell each and every tomato quarter or half to make sure it doesn’t have a rotten or  unpleasant smell to it.

If I get a whiff of anything icky, I immediately send it to the compost bowl. You don’t want to taint the sauce. Even the smallest bit can ruin a whole bowl of sauce with a yucky flavor.

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The red bowl holds the good tomatoes waiting to get squished.

The orange bowl is waiting for all that yummy puree to flow down.

The blue bowl is catching all the seeds and pulp.

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Having a spatula on hand is perfect for scraping some of the thicker puree to keep things moving.
You’ll want to scrape the screen well.
I love how the fine mesh screen keeps all the seeds out.
There is never a single seed or peel in my sauce. Ever.
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I think Victorio makes the pushers plastic now, but this wood one is awesome for shoving the tomatoes through.
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There is very little waste using a Victorio. The left blue bowl is the pulp that has been run through the strainer twice.

The red bowl is the pulp that is still liquidy and therefore needs a second run-through.

Since I am low on tomatoes this year, I decided that after I ran the tomatoes through once I would dump all the pulp back in and run it through again.

You’d be surprised how much extra puree I got from doing this! In fact, if I weren’t so tired, I’d give it a third try.

*Note*: the second run-through does make the machine leak a bit and you’ll have more mess to deal with if you try this at home.

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Yes, cleanup is messy. Just expect juice and pulp to coat your countertop and just about every other area of your kitchen, too.

But wait till you taste the sauce. It’s totally worth it. Fresh, delicious, organic and sweet. But not too sweet.

No sugar added or needed.

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Those bubbles on top tell me it’s time to give my sauce a stir. I enjoy watching my sauce foam at the top as it compacts down further and further.

Now I have two pots but pretty soon I’ll dump the one into the other.

I plan on making this sauce very thick this year so I will boiling it down for many hours. The smell wafting through my house is amazing.

I know canning is popular but I can’t bring myself to deal with the sterilization process. When the sauce looks and tastes about right, I ladle it into Ziploc bags in usable portions and simply freeze it.

You can season it now to your liking, but I prefer to wait until I defrost it to season.

This way I can throw fresh ingredients in like basil, garlic, oregano, Parm cheese and other Italian seasonings.

Sometimes I even add mushrooms and onions, but not usually as I find it detracts from the amazing fresh flavor!

Do you like red sauces? Do you make your own red sauce?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  8. Sandra McFadden says

    I am hoping next year I will be able to plant some raised bed gardens to grow my romas so I can too can my own sauce. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

  11. Betsy Pauzauskie says

    We love fresh red sauces, making a number of batches with our homegrown Romas over this past month of harvesting. While past peak production, we are still harvesting enough Romas to top off sandwiches.

    Reply

  27. Debbie Welchert says

    My husband and I would do this every year for many years. I would cut up the tomatoes and he would turn the crank. Good times…..

    Reply

  28. Tommye Marion says

    I used to make my own Red sauce when I was raising my kids but now my 2nd hubby doesn’t like it so I rarely make it or use it.

    Reply

  37. Michael Coovert says

    It doesn’t get any better than fresh, homemade tomato sauce. Angel hair with meat sauce made with fresh tomato sauce is one of my favorite things in the world.

    Reply

  40. Tammy Tam says

    I have never tried this. I would like to but it seems the tomatoes in our grocery don’t have very good flavor except in the peak of summer.

    Reply

  48. Minnie C. says

    Very interesting and informative. The young lady making her own sauce with her grandmother’s appliance is remarkable. I’m sure her grandmother was smiling with pride up in heaven. I might give it a try.

    Reply

  56. Frankie Pinnix says

    My mother has canned foods every since I can remember. Myself? No way! I’m with you on the sterilization and all. But I do love summer homegrown tomatoes! They’re so versatile and nutritious!

    Reply

  65. Audrey Stewart says

    Our Mom was the tomato grower and since she’s passed, I haven’t had any home grown tomatoes since. I plan on growing some next year.

    Reply

  66. Beth Mason says

    I don’t have a garden but if I did I would love to make my own tomato sauce. The taste is so much better than canned.

    Reply

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• Proverbs 11:25 •