Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce - Your Pasta will Thank You!

One of the most popular tomato recipes last year was the Pasta Sauce. Most canners are looking to stop buying products they can make themselves and keep out all the preservatives from the commercial canning sources. The Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce was one of the hallmark recipes that now keeps me out of the pasta isle.  It's been on in my Notes on the SB Canning Facebook page but seems to get lost. I want to add this and will add many of the lost recipe from Facebook so that we all have access to them quickly. 

Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce
by SB Canning on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 
Roasted Garlic Pasta Sauce(Adapted from Better Homes and Garden Canning Magazine)

6 bulbs of garlic
3 T. olive oil
4  medium red, yellow and/or green bell peppers,  halved and seeded
12 lbs peeled tomatoes
3 T. packed brown sugar
2 T. kosher salt
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 t. ground pepper
2 cups snipped basil leaves
1 cup assorted fresh oregano, thyme, or flat leave parsley
6 T. bottled lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees peel away the dry outer layer of the garlic bulbs. Cut top off and leave bulbs intact. Place cut side up on a casserole dish and drizzle with one tablespoon of oil. Cover casserole and arrange peppers cut side down on a foil lined baking sheet. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.

Roast garlic and peppers for 40 -50 minutes or until the pepper skins are charred or the garlic cloves are soft. Cool garlic on a wire rack until cool enough to handle. Pull up foil to enclose the peppers. Let peppers stand for 15 to 20 minutes or cool enough to handle.  Peel off skin and discard. Set aside peppers.

Remove garlic by squeezing the bottom of the bulbs. Place garlic cloves in a food processor and add cut peeled tomatoes into chunks. Add some of the chunks to the garlic in the food processor. Cover and process till chopped. Transfer chopped garlic and tomatoes to a 7-8 quart stainless steel heavy pot.  Repeat chopping the remaining tomatoes in batches in the food processor. Add all the tomatoes to the pot.

Add brown sugar, salt, vinegar, and black pepper to the tomato mixture. Bring to low boil and boil steady for 50 minutes stirring often. Add chopped roasted peppers to tomato mixture. Low boil for 10 to 20 minutes more or until mixture reduced to 11 cups and reaches desired consistency stirring occasionally. Remove from heat stir in basil and assorted herbs.

Spoon 1 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice into each of the hot sterilized pint jars. Ladle hot sauce into jars with lemon juice leaving a ½” headspace. Wipe jar rims, adjust lids. Process jars for 35 minutes in a water bath at a full boil. Makes 6 pints.

Adaptation for Quarts: Spoon 2 tablespoon of bottled lemon juice into each of the hot sterilized quart jars. Ladle hot sauce into jars with lemon juice leaving a ½” headspace. Wipe jar rims, adjust lids. Process jars for 40 minutes in a water bath at a full boil. Makes 3 quarts.