Homemade Tomato Sauce for Winter

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make tomato sauce for winter? Gather your ingredients. Wash the tomatoes thoroughly and pat them dry. Cut away any bad spots with a knife. Cut the tomatoes into medium pieces, removing the tough white cores. Run the tomato pieces through a meat grinder.

2. Step 2:

   

   Peel the onion and, like the tomatoes, cut it into medium pieces. Run the onion through the meat grinder right in with the tomatoes. Carefully transfer the tomato-onion mixture to a pot.

3. Step 3:

   

   Add the bay leaf, whole clove, and black peppercorns so they release their full aroma and flavor into the sauce as it cooks. Set the pot over the heat, bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the heat. Simmer for 1 hour so the tomatoes and onion soften and are easier to pass through a sieve later. Stir occasionally so it doesn't scorch.

4. Step 4:

   

   Remove the bay leaf from the cooked tomato-onion mixture. Press the mixture through a sieve into a deep bowl, separating out the pulp solids (there won't be much) and leaving behind the peppercorns and clove — you won't need them anymore, since they've already flavored the sauce. Pour the strained tomato sauce back into the pot and return it to the stove. Cook for another 2 hours over the lowest heat, watching so it doesn't scorch.

5. Step 5:

   

   Stir it from time to time. As the sauce cooks, add the sugar and a little salt. Cook it down from thin to thick. Near the end, once it's thickened, pour in the vinegar, stir, and taste. Adjust with more sugar, salt, or vinegar if needed.

6. Step 6:

   

   Sterilize the jars (do this ahead of time). Ladle the boiling-hot sauce into the jars. Boil the lids in a small pan for a few minutes, then set them on the jars and seal tightly. Leave the jars to cool, wrapped in a blanket. Store the cooled sauce in the refrigerator.