I’ve done a lot of canning this summer. Not an industrial-type of job—as I mentioned before—but more like when I had abundance of vegetables that needed to be put at good use.

I made both the peeled tomatoes, and the tomato sauce. The first solution is pretty basic and fast. For the sauce, l usually buy the San Marzano tomatoes, add onions, carrots (one or two), a stalk of celery, garlic, olive oil, tomatoes, basil leaves, and seasonings. I Let the sauce simmer for about 20 or 30 minutes normally. But in this case, for the preserving, I let the sauce simmer for over an hour because the more you cook it the more flavourful it will become.

I also stored pesto, just because I was sorry to see my basil on my windowsill starting to complain about the cooler weather.

For the pesto I used mini one-portion cans, and stored them in the fridge.

I had a couple of quince fruits (we called them apples “cotogne” in Italian), and they are popular to make a sweet and sour sauce that is perfect in winter with cheeses or used to complete meat preparations, such as stuffing in roast, or as an accompaniment.

It is a very close relative of the Spanish “menbrillo”.

Last, I made some broth preparation with the latest fresh vegetables such as onions, carrots, zucchini, celery, parsley, leeks, and garlic. Once canned it can be kept in the refrigerator and use as needed to add flavor to soups, and other preparations. This is a substitute for those mysterious ‘broth cubes’ found in groceries.

So now I’m all ready for winter, and quite satisfied that I have my own preparations free of preservatives and other “unknown“ chemicals.