No Longer A Secret Sauce

Ingredients

• 50 lbs tomatoes , washed, stems and blossoms removed
• 12 onions (red, yellow, and/or white), peeled and wedged
• 24 peppers , mixed varieties, seeded and wedged
• 192 garlic cloves , peeled
• 3 C olive oil

Instructions

1. You will also need two large roasting pans, a large pot for boiling water, something to puree the sauce with (blender, immersion blender or food mill), plenty of freezer bags and time.
2. Prep your vegetables first, remembering that your wedges don’t have to be fancy. Keep the garlic cloves whole. Divide evenly between your roasting pans and toss with the olive oil to coat. Set aside.
3. Prepare the tomatoes by removing the skin. Get a large pot (your canner will do nicely) of water boiling and fill your clean sink with cold water. Once the water on the stove is boiling, drop in some tomatoes and boil them for 30 sec. to 1 min. Using a slot- ted spoon or mesh strainer, transfer the hot tomatoes to the cold water in the sink. This will cause the skin to split and make them easier to peel. Peel and core enough tomatoes to add to the roasting pans until the pans are filled just shy of the top. You can also seed the tomatoes if you desire, but this is not necessary. Toss with the onions, peppers and garlic. Put the uncovered roasters in the oven.
4. While everything begins roasting, con- tinue to core and peel the rest of your toma- toes, setting them aside in bowls until you are ready to add them to the roasters.
5. Once the vegeta- bles in the roasters begin to bubble, you will need to occasion- ally stir the mix for even roasting. You want to cook the mixture down to inten- sify the flavors and achieve some roast- ed bits throughout. From this moment on, you are just adding tomatoes and cooking them down and stirring from time to time.
6. Add the prepared tomatoes until all 50 pounds have been added to the roast- ers and it is reduced sufficiently for your taste. This will take 6–8 hours and will make a tremendous mess in your oven. Remove the roasters from the oven, stirring until cool enough to puree. Puree with the tool of your choice (or don’t — it’s your sauce). An immersion blender is especially handy for this job. Borrow one if you don’t have one — it’s worth it.
7. Now is the time to chill the mixture so it is cool enough to handle and bag. You can put it into smaller containers, use a chill stick or ice paddle or place the whole thing into the freezer, stirring fre quently to get the temperature down quickly. Once it is cool enough to handle, portion into freezer bags, stack them in the freezer and see how long you can wait before you need to try one.