Oh how bright the capsicums look!
Today I'm doing pasta sauce again. I say again despite the last time being four (or was it five??) years ago. It has been far too long!
I'm following the recipe from www.greenlivingaustralia.com.au
Once all the veg is chopped and starting to boil it looks like this!!! I ran half the tomatoes through my food mill first this time in an effort to smooth out the sauce to meet with hubby's tastes.
This is what's left after simmering for approximately 3 hours. I'm hoping this will work out at the least cost even with commercial sauces.
I'm using my electric Fowlers preserving kit as my waterbath today. It frees up my stove for more pots. And because it runs essentially like a kettle it boils faster than the pot on my stove.
As you can see there is the unit boiling away while dinner cooks on the stove.
And there are the jars out and cooling.
I had a friend around today who was helping me chop and learning how to do her own sauce. The recycled jars are hers and the Fowlers jars are mine.
My count is 8 jars of sauce from my batch. As per the recipe that was 5 kgs of tomatoes, 4 capsicums, 5 onions, some herbs and spices and salt and sugar and the all-important squeeze of bottled lemon juice in the top of each jar prior to the water bath.
Not including electricity costs this was a total of $16 (including the price of new jar rings for my jars).
These are 600ml jars... at $2 each. This is the equivalent of a jar of commercial sauce on special.... but better as there is much less sugar and salt, no thickener or preservative and i know exactly what went in it!
Insert happy dance here!
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