1.To make 5 pints of tomato sauce, you will need about 20 pounds of tomatoes (1.5 pecks, approximately). You can, however, make sauce out of whatever tomatoes you have on hand and adjust the seasonings according to how much sauce you have.

Prepare tomatoes as follows (more detailed instructions can be found here): wash and core tomatoes and put into a large pan(s) and cook until soft and mushy (at least one hour). Be careful to stir every now and then and keep the heat reasonable so they don't scorch... scorched tomatoes taste awful!

2. Using a small pan or large scoop, put hot tomatoes into a strainer to drain off the watery juice. (We use a mesh wire strainer.) When tomatoes have drained somewhat (10-20 minutes), run them through a colander, which will remove the seeds and skins. (Another way is to drain the tomatoes and then run through a blender or food processor.) While you process one batch, have another batch in the strainer to drain.

3. Put sauce into a clean pan, and continue until all tomatoes are processed. You should now have a tomato sauce, which could be canned as is, or you can season for pizza/spaghetti, etc. Usually once you have the tomatoes processed, then you know how much sauce you will end up with. The above measurements were per 5 pints of processed sauce.

4. Cook onions, garlic, and peppers in a pan on the stove with a little tomato juice until tender before adding to sauce.

5. While you are cooking the onions, peppers, and garlic, add the white sugar, salt, oregano, black pepper, basil, and arrowroot or cornstarch, mixed with a little tomato juice (set some aside when draining). Stir sauce to mix thoroughly and bring to a boil so it thickens. You may need more thickener depending on how well-drained your tomatoes were and your own preference.

6. If preserving, put into jars and process for 25 minutes (for pints; 35 minutes for quarts). (You can open-kettle this, like salsa, but it gets kind of messy because the sauce is thick and splashes when it boils.)