With all those low-acid veggies you would have to pressure can rather than BWB unless you added lots of acid. How much would just be a guess.

Are you looking for a smooth sauce, milled after cooking all those vegetables and then acidified or a chunky sauce with the onions, peppers, and zukes left in it?

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: NCHFP - Tomatoes with Okra or Zucchini

No, not chunky...smoother. I usually take a stick blender to my plain or seasoned tomato sauce. And I knew it would need a lot of acid, which doesn't bother me. I just didn't know if any such recipe existed out there.

In the meantime, I have decided to try the BBB chili sauce (since my tomatoes were ticking time bombs on the counter). Now the question: what fun things can I do with homemade chili sauce once it's done?

Thanks in advance for input on either question. --Gina

Salsa too. You can use it as a sauce for many other Mexican meals, and its even good as a dipping sauce, you can add a bit more heat if you like. With the basic being a tomato, you can head in any direction you feel like. Be creative!

This recipe has been posted here before. It has the ingredients you mention and is suitable for boiling water bath.

Multi-Use Tomato Sauce

Categories: Canning & Preserving Dressings, Marinades, Sauces

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
10 plum tomatoes -- (about 2 1/2 lbs./1 kg)
10 large tomatoes -- peeled and chopped (about 4 lbs./2 kg)
4 large garlic cloves -- minced
2 large stalks celery -- chopped
2 medium carrots -- chopped
1 large onion -- chopped
1 large zucchini -- chopped
1 large sweet green pepper -- chopped
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes -- (125 mL)
2/3 cup dry red wine -- (150 mL)
1/2 cup red wine vinegar (5% strength or more) -- (125 mL)
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon pickling salt -- (15 mL)
2 teaspoons dried oregano -- (10 mL)
2 teaspoons dried basil -- (10 mL)
1 teaspoon granulated sugar -- (5 mL) (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon -- (2 mL) (optional)
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper -- (2 mL)
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley -- (50 mL)

Combine tomatoes, celery, garlic, onion, zucchini and green pepper in a very large non-reactive pan. Add 1 cup (250 mL) water. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat and boil gently, covered, for 25 minutes or until mixture begins to thicken, stirring occasionally.

Soak sun-dried tomatoes in boiling water until softened. Drain and dice. Add to sauce with wine, vinegar, bay leaves, salt, oregano, basil, sugar, cinamon and pepper. Continue to boil gently until desired consistency, stirring frequently. Discard bay leaves and stir in parsley.

Remove hot jars from canner and ladle sauce into jars to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of rim (head space). Process in a BWB 35 minutes for pint (500 mL) jars and 40 minutes for quart (1 L) jars.

Description: from Ellie Topp's "Complete Book of Small-Batch Preserving"

Yield: "12 cups"

Perfect! THANKS so much, Carol! (ReadingLady=Carol, right?) Sorry that I couldn't find it myself via the crappy search engine.

Ken, thanks for the suggestion, but I am up to my eyeballs in salsa!

Well, I've got five lovely jars of spicy chili sauce cooling on the counter. Having tasted it, I think it will be great as a meatloaf topping, and also as something like a cocktail sauce for shrimp. And of course, there's the ever-popular crockpot meatball sauce. I'm sure I'll think of other uses in time...

Thanks again for the tomato sauce recipe. --Gina

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindsey's Luscious (my cooking blog)

Chili sauce is great in meatloaf mix and also on top before baking. We use it in Spicy meatballs. You know, the ones made with grape jelly. Put chili sauce on anything you would put ketchup on.

Gina, I forgot to mention that I made the BBB chili sauce yesterday. The total was 5 pints and 5-12oz jars. I thought the salt was a bit much and the vinegar also. I cut the salt to 2 tbls. I also added 1/4 cup more sugar after the 2-1/2 cups vinegar. It's one of those "taste as you go" things. The bit left over tasted fine once it cooled.

Its good to know that some people are tasting the items prior to canning. You have less surprises or dissapointments that way. Anything made with tomatoes can be a great recipe. I made a 'sort of' chunky ketchup, and it turned out very good. Its even almost a BBQ sauce base.

Wow, Shirley! I must have cooked mine WAY down, as I only got five pints. It was roughly the consistency of ketchup, but with more texture, of course. I thought it tasted great. The salt didn't bother me, but like you, I did add an extra bit (a scant half cup?) of sugar to counterbalance all the vinegar.

I feel a zesty meatloaf coming on soon! ;-) --Gina