Easy and Fabulous Crockpot Marinara

**llama momma** 8/20/2016, 1:14 am

How simple this is?
Wash, core, food process or blender whole tomatoes with skins. Toss into crockpot, add sautéed onions and garlic. Ignore for hours. Last hour add dry spices. No fussing over a pot. Cool then freeze in containers or freezer bags. Very easy and tasty marinara sauce. I doubled the recipe. Made a little under a gallon.

http://practical-stewardship.com/2013/08/24/crock-pot-marinara-sauce/

**trolleydriver** 8/20/2016, 9:32 am

LM ... thanks for the article and recipe. I just may have to give that a try. Smile

**Scorpio Rising** 8/20/2016, 9:34 am

Me too, thanks, LM! How long did the lid off ok down take?

**llama momma** 8/20/2016, 9:39 am

About an hour depending how juicy the tomatoes.

yolos 8/20/2016, 9:40 am

Question - the recipe calls for leaving the lid on for most of the cooking time. I don't understand how that is not going to easily get rid of the excess moisture from the tomatoes. They mention taking the lid off the last hour or so. I have to cook mine forever to reduce the liquid.

**llama momma** 8/20/2016, 9:50 am

It was my first time making this and it worked for me. Think it's just a personal preference how thick you want the results. (?) And how meaty or watery your tomatoes are to begin with. I think throwing some tom paste in would help thicken it also.

**llama momma** 8/20/2016, 10:48 am

Update. I doubled this recipe and cooked it down. Just weighed the results and filled three quart size freezer bags each had exactly 28 oz. with room to expand from freezing. Crock pot was so full, I thought there was more.

**Scorpio Rising** 8/20/2016, 1:21 pm

I am gonna try this tomorrow! Thanks for the recipe!

**llama momma** 8/20/2016, 1:48 pm

Scorpio Rising wrote:I am gonna try this tomorrow! Thanks for the recipe!

Good luck! I made another batch this morning. sunny

Next is dehydrating and making tomato powder. Got to get rid of these maters jocolor

Mikesgardn 8/21/2016, 11:07 am

I picked my last bunch of La Roma tomatoes yesterday, so I decided to try this recipe today. I have it in the crock pot now. The recipe says to cook on high for 4 hours, then check every hour until done, up to 8 hours total with the cover on. What should I be looking for to tell if it is done?

**llama momma** 8/21/2016, 11:16 am

Mike- I stirred, put some on a spoon to see if it was as thick as store bought. Tasting it is part of the fun too. For example I find sugar is not needed in my opinion. Fresh home grown is very sweet tasting to me.

**sanderson** 8/21/2016, 1:44 pm

I finally looked at the link and liked the fact that the recipe could be "printed" without all of the rest of the material on the page. Thanks

**llama momma** 8/21/2016, 3:00 pm

Me too Sanderson, and you're welcome.

Mikesgardn 8/21/2016, 11:03 pm

Thanks for posting this recipe. I followed the recipe as shown, and it turned out really well. I really love the simplicity of it, although it does require that you have a strong blender like the Vitamix. I found that it required a little more than 3 pounds of La Roma tomatoes to make the 7 cups of blended tomatoes called for in the recipe. I did not core, peel, or seed the tomatoes. I blended them whole, like the recipe said, and added the chopped onion, basil, oil, and garlic...and blended a little bit more. I cooked the mixture on high for 7 hours with the cover on, then added the italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and pepper.....and cooked for another hour with the lid partially open. Getting late, so I stopped there. Consistency was not thick, but it tasted great. Ended up with 8 cups of sauce. Thanks again!

**llama momma** 8/22/2016, 1:23 am

You're welcome Mike. I have other recipes for sauce but this is so easy and tasty. I enjoyed this recipe for two reasons one, not having to remove skins and two, no need to babysit a pot.

BeetlesPerSqFt 8/24/2016, 8:51 am

THANK YOU for posting this, llama mama!!! I had cracked/split tomatoes starting to go bad all over my kitchen, attracting fruit flies (I swear they can slip through window screens), the too-late ones making my compost bucket too wet... This recipe cleared my problem right up, and it was delicious! I halved the sugar and salt, doubled the pepper, and added just a little cinnamon. I cooked it on the stovetop, uncovered the whole time, and made it nice a thick as is my preference. I still need to clean the blender and whatnot, but I'm so much less stressed out.
thanks

**llama momma** 8/24/2016, 10:21 am

Beetles--

It was so nice to hear that helped you out!
Btw, at times I've also had leaky and buggy tomatoes and get annoyed with myself for not acting quicker. I'll look at them and think oh those look good for another day or so....oops.

I've also heard a couple of people on the forum say they put extra tomatoes in the freezer until they decide what to with it. I haven't tried that but its nice to know there seems to be endless ways to handle all these tomatoes.

**Kelejan** 8/24/2016, 6:13 pm

sanderson wrote:I finally looked at the link and liked the fact that the recipe could be "printed" without all of the rest of the material on the page. Thanks

I know exactly what you mean, sanderson.
I am working on a recipe for making pectin, and if I printed it out it would take ten pages. I tried to cut and past but it would not let me. One would have to "join the club" for that privilege and I have so much stuff on my computer, (just like in my home Very Happy

) that I am trying to cut down.

**llama momma** 8/24/2016, 7:50 pm

Yes Sanderson I liked that feature also, no need to waste all those pages!

BeetlesPerSqFt 8/24/2016, 10:10 pm

llama momma wrote:Beetles--

It was so nice to hear that helped you out!
Btw, at times I've also had leaky and buggy tomatoes and get annoyed with myself for not acting quicker. I'll look at them and think oh those look good for another day or so....oops.

I've also heard a couple of people on the forum say they put extra tomatoes in the freezer until they decide what to with it. I haven't tried that but its nice to know there seems to be endless ways to handle all these tomatoes.

Good suggestion, but alas, the freezer is pretty full right now. Ice cube season, homemade chicken stock made from organic chicken feet, an entire organic rabbit, and the remnants of several bulk purchases. I know I could hypothetically get a chest freezer, but I already seem to have a problem using what I have; for me, a chest freezer would make that problem bigger. I figured the marinara would cook down and I'd fit half in the freezer... but it cooked down enough that I used it all. Very Happy

**Scorpio Rising** 8/24/2016, 10:21 pm

This recipe is THE BOMB. I too had 2 weeks' worth of tomatoes of various varieties and this little gem handled them all and tastes great! Yum! Froze the rest. Will be great in January....needs my lycopene.....

cherry

**trolleydriver** 8/25/2016, 9:30 am

Mikesgardn wrote:Thanks for posting this recipe. I followed the recipe as shown, and it turned out really well. I really love the simplicity of it, although it does require that you have a strong blender like the Vitamix. I found that it required a little more than 3 pounds of La Roma tomatoes to make the 7 cups of blended tomatoes called for in the recipe. I did not core, peel, or seed the tomatoes. I blended them whole, like the recipe said, and added the chopped onion, basil, oil, and garlic...and blended a little bit more. I cooked the mixture on high for 7 hours with the cover on, then added the italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and pepper.....and cooked for another hour with the lid partially open. Getting late, so I stopped there. Consistency was not thick, but it tasted great. Ended up with 8 cups of sauce. Thanks again!

I was wondering how many tomatoes I needed for the 7 cups and now I know thanks to your post. Like you I will be using a Vitamix blender.

BeetlesPerSqFt 8/25/2016, 12:03 pm

trolleydriver wrote:
Mikesgardn wrote:Thanks for posting this recipe. I followed the recipe as shown, and it turned out really well. I really love the simplicity of it, although it does require that you have a strong blender like the Vitamix. I found that it required a little more than 3 pounds of La Roma tomatoes to make the 7 cups of blended tomatoes called for in the recipe. I did not core, peel, or seed the tomatoes. I blended them whole, like the recipe said, and added the chopped onion, basil, oil, and garlic...and blended a little bit more. I cooked the mixture on high for 7 hours with the cover on, then added the italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and pepper.....and cooked for another hour with the lid partially open. Getting late, so I stopped there. Consistency was not thick, but it tasted great. Ended up with 8 cups of sauce. Thanks again!

I was wondering how many tomatoes I needed for the 7 cups and now I know thanks to your post. Like you I will be using a Vitamix blender.

BTW - thanks for sharing the blender detail, Mike: I did a quick/mostly peel and not-meticulous de-seeding before using my not-a-vitamix blender. (Peels came off the black krims pretty easily without the boiling step, and slicing in half the long way and scooping with an ice-tea spoon made short work of the de-seeding.)

**trolleydriver** 8/25/2016, 12:37 pm

Oh Yikes!

It's been pretty busy around here this morning. we have my Mom staying with us and two grandkids stayed overnight. But the error was all mine. I had "senior's brain". Instead of doing 3 lbs of tomatoes for 7 cups, I prepared 7 lbs of tomatoes. How stupid was that? Can't follow clear instructions! Now I have to find other things to do with these tomatoes. They have not yet gone through the blender but I did slice off some parts that did not look all that great.

**Kelejan** 8/25/2016, 12:41 pm

Make another batch of marinara TD and make someone think your are a marvelous cook. Very Happy

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