Preserve Tomatoes – As Easy As Pie

By Ivan Knauer
Aug. 19, 2021 3:58 pm

No need for peeling or coring—or canning, for that matter. These simple, delicious recipes for
homemade ketchup, salsa and marinara sauce will stock your kitchen with peak-season tomatoes for the
months to come.
Each Monday, from late July
through September, I preserve
tomatoes. I boil them down into
ketchup, and marinara sauce,
and salsa, and tomato purée, and
Bloody Mary mix. I put all these
in jars, which I seal with a
pressure canner to then sell at
farmers’ markets throughout the
year.
Back when we were first dating, I
must have noticed a crate of
slightly overripe tomatoes at her
farm, slated for the compost pile.
That first year, I plunged the
tomatoes, all 50 pounds of them,
into boiling water, then slipped
off their skins and removed their
stem ends before dicing them and
boiling them with onion and
garlic into marinara sauce. How
quaint. The next year, my
payload was up to about 200
pounds a week, and it’s been
increasing ever since.

Preserve peak-season tomatoes for the year to come with

easy recipes for homemade ketchup, tomato salsa and
marinara sauce.
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

Out of necessity, I’ve learned a few shortcuts. My biggest lesson came the summer I was 1,200
pounds behind in my processing and needed to contract outside help. The Bauman family
runs a small-scale processing plant on the edge of Amish country in Pennsylvania, near where
I live. They are famous for their apple butter, but a large part of their business model is
processing tomatoes for local farms. You can drop off your vegetables and, a few days later,
pick up sealed jars of ketchup, or salsa, or any number of preserved products. Jars cost a few
dollars each; farmers then sell them at local markets. That’s why most small-farm ketchup in
eastern Pennsylvania tastes the same: It’s all Bauman’s recipe.
I’m pretty particular about recipes; most of my business model is writing them. It took some
convincing to get Bauman’s to follow my recipe for salsa that year. In the end, and due in no
small part to the size of the order, they conceded.
When I dropped off the produce, I asked for a quick tour, which I was immediately told no
one had time for. No one at Bauman’s has time for a fancy website build-out, either. They did
let me look into the processing plant, where I saw a huge grinder chewing up whole tomatoes.
I took note and started saving myself a lot of time. Forget the peeling and the stem ends. Now
I simply blend whole tomatoes, boil them down to the thickness the recipe calls for and
season. My Vitamix blender can handle small, whole tomatoes; any that are larger than a
tennis ball I cut in half or quarter before blending. Some recipes require more blending
(ketchup or marinara), others are fine a little chunky (salsa).
While I jar my sauces, any reasonable person who hasn’t committed to such an absurd volume
could easily freeze theirs until they’re ready to use them. My favorite method is to fill sealable
quart-size bags, zip them closed removing as much air as possible, and freeze them flat on a
sheet tray. Once frozen, the flat bags stack easily in the freezer. Sauces I‘ll use sooner go into
the fridge, and any leftover takeout container with a tight-fitting lid will do. The recipes
featured here will last several weeks that way. Preserving doesn’t get much easier.
 Straightforward
Marinara Sauce
This is a great go-to recipe to serve with pasta,
meatballs or any other way you put a classic
Italian-style tomato sauce to use in your
kitchen. Cook it an extra 10 minutes to use it as
a pizza sauce.
TOTAL TIME: 50 minutes
MAKES: 1 ½ quarts
Ingredients
 6 pounds ripe tomatoes
 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
 1 medium onion, chopped
 1 ½ teaspoons salt
 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
 ¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
 ¼ teaspoon dried red chile flakes
(optional)
—Adapted from Ivan Knauer
Chelsie craig for the wall street
journal, food styling by tyna hoang,
prop styling by sophie leng
Directions
1. Cut tomatoes in half or quarters. In
a blender, purée tomatoes in
batches until smooth.
2. Heat oil in a medium heavy
saucepan over medium-high heat.
Once oil is hot, add onions and salt
and cook, stirring occasionally,
until just starting to color, about 5
minutes. Stir in garlic and cook,
stirring, until fragrant, 1-2 minutes.
Add puréed tomatoes, pepper and
chile flakes, if using, and bring to a
boil. Cook until onions are falling-
apart tender, 30-40 minutes.
3. Transfer sauce to blender and
purée once more until smooth
 Tomatoes Salsa
Serve this no-fuss, all-purpose salsa with
chips or on nachos, or use it as the base for a
killer chili.
TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 30 minutes
MAKES: 2 quarts
Ingredients
 7 ½ pounds ripe tomatoes
 1 pound ripe sweet peppers, such as
bell peppers, seeded and stemmed
 ¾ pound onions, peeled and cut into
large chunks
 1-3 hot chiles, stemmed
 2 cloves garlic, peeled
 ½ bunch (2 ounces) cilantro
 ⅓ cup vinegar
 1 ½ teaspoons salt
 1 teaspoon dried oregano
 1 teaspoon ground coriander
 ½ teaspoon ground cumin
 Ground black pepper to taste
—Adapted from Ivan Knauer
Chelsie craig for the wall street
journal, food styling by tyna hoang,
prop styling by sophie leng
Directions
1. Cut tomatoes in half or quarters.
Use a blender or food processor
to purée tomatoes in batches until
coarsely ground. Transfer purée
to a large heavy pot and set over
high heat.
2. In a food processor, pulse peppers
and onions, in batches if
necessary, until chopped, then
add to tomatoes. Pulse hot
peppers, garlic and cilantro until
finely chopped, then add them to
tomatoes.
3. Add vinegar, salt, oregano,
coriander, and cumin to
tomatoes. Bring to boil, then
lower heat gradually to bring
down to a simmer. Cook until
salsa thickens, stirring more
frequently as tomatoes cook
down, about 1 hour.
Ketchup
The balance here is maximum umami,
minimum sweet. If you prefer your ketchup
sweeter, feel free to up the sugar.
TOTAL TIME: 3 hours
MAKES: 4 half-pints
Ingredients
 2 teaspoons coriander seed
 1 teaspoon cumin seed
 1 teaspoon mustard seed
 3 bay leaves
 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
 1 large onion, chopped
 5 pounds ripe tomatoes
 1 cup red wine vinegar
 ⅓ cup dark brown sugar
 1 head roasted garlic
 ¼ cup capers with their brine
 ¼ cup hot sauce
 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
 2 tablespoons soy sauce
 1 tablespoon fish sauce
 2 teaspoons salt
—Adapted from Ivan Knaue
 2 teaspoons paprika
 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
 ½ teaspoon allspice
Chelsie craig for the wall street
journal, food styling by tyna hoang,
prop styling by sophie leng
Directions
1. 1. In a large dry heavy pot over medium
heat, toast coriander, cumin and mustard
seeds until they are several shades darker
and fragrant, about 2 minutes. Use a spice
grinder, coffee grinder or mortar and pestle
to finely grind seeds with bay leaves.
2. 2. Heat oil in the same pot over medium-
high heat. Add onions and cook, stirring
occasionally, until well browned, about 10
minutes. Add remaining ingredients along
with toasted, ground spices, and bring to a
boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer,
stirring occasionally, until vegetables are
very tender, about 45 minutes.
3. 3. Transfer cooked tomato mixture to a
blender or food processor, in batches if
necessary, and purée. Return purée to pot,
bring to a simmer and cook, stirring
occasionally, until it reaches a paste-like
consistency, 11/2 -2 hours. Toward the end
of cooking, stir ketchup more frequently to
prevent scorching.