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From the Menu Mailer
I recommend you use Bionaturae tomato products in glass jars where you can, as they are BPA-free. Their canned tomato products do contain BPA in the lining of the can. If you can find tomatoes in glass jars from another company, that is good, too. This summer, I will be doing tutorials and videos on the website to show you how to can them yourself, so you can avoid the BPA issue altogether.
2 Tbs tallow, coconut oil, butter or ghee
1 onion, diced
½ – 1 pound ground beef
2-4 ounces beef liver, grated, optional
1 clove garlic, pressed
2 (14½-ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 cup tomato sauce or strained tomatoes
2 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste
1 cup beef stock
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
In a skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the ground beef and liver and cook, breaking up the meat, until it is no longer pink. Place in the crock-pot and stir in the remaining ingredients. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours.
If you’d like to stretch this recipe you can add shredded carrots, zucchini, mushrooms and other vegetables in when you sauté the onions.
This sauce freezes wonderfully.
I'm 
I just checked the bionaturae website through the link you provided above. According to them, their tomatoes are canned in PBA-lined cans.
http://www.bionaturae.com/faq.html
Excuse me, I meant BPA (my fingers where moving faster than my brain again).
You are correct. It is only their glass jarred-containing tomato products which are BPA-free. Thank you for pointing that out, I will correct the post.
How much does this recipe make? Enough for one family size dinner? (4-6 people)–or enough that I can freeze several dinners worth?
Amy, it serves 4-5 if you use a half-pound of ground beef. Six or so if you use one pound. It depends on how much your family eats in a sitting. We tend to go heavy on the sauce and light on the pasta, so it would serve four or six, depending on the amount of ground beef I use.
Why would you be avoiding the canned tomatoes due to BPA, but using canned tomato paste? Is it not an issue in paste?
I replace tomato paste in most recipes with dehydrated tomatoes, not so much because of BPA, but because so many recipes call for 1 TB or so, and I can’t be bothered with freezing extra to save, etc. Basically, any recipe involving canned tomato products, if it doesn’t use an entire can, just gets on my nerves. 😉
You can buy dried tomatoes, of course, but you can dehydrate yourself easily enough too. IMO, it’s less work than canning tomatoes.
When using, I pulverize the tomatoes in my Vitamix and then mix the power with warm water. My conversions for powdered dried tomatoes:
paste = 1 part powder + 1 part water
sauce = 1 part powder + 3 parts water
soup = 1 part powder + 1 part water + 2 parts cream
juice = 1 part powder + 24 parts water
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Other useful tomato conversions from my kitchen notebook, handy when you have the “wrong” sort for a recipe:
1 large tomato = 1 1/2 medium tomatoes = 3 plum tomatoes = 1 1/3 cup cherry tomatoes = 1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup canned tomatoes = 1 1/3 cup fresh diced tomatoes, simmered in minimal water for 10 minutes
1 cup tomato sauce = 1 cup canned tomatoes with liquid put through Vitamix
1 cup tomato juice = 1/2 cup tomato sauce + 1/2 cup water = 3 TB tomato paste + 1 cup water
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If I am canning tomatoes, I tend to can sauce rather than whole tomatoes. My favorite recipe for sauce follows.
When using this sauce, if for spaghetti, add a bit more basil with your fried meats. If for pizza, add more oregano.
* 45 lbs roma-type tomatoes (about 1 bushel)
* 1 cup chopped onions
* 1 cup chopped yellow bell peppers
* 6 cloves garlic, pressed
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 2 TB fresh oregano, cut up with scissors
* 2 TB fresh basil, cut up with scissors
* 4 TB fresh flat Italian parsley, cut up with scissors
* 2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Start with a large pot with a capacity of about 15 quarts. Place 7 quarts of water in it, place a wooden spoon in it and place in pot. Cut a tiny notch in the spoon just below the wet mark.
Wash tomatoes, remove stems, and trim off bruised or discolored portions. Dip a few tomatoes at a time into a pot of boiling water. Then place in a bowl of cold water. This loosens the skins so they can slip off easily. Remove skins.
Chop tomatoes coarsely and add to pot. Bring to boil and boil for 30 minutes. Then run tomatoes through a food mill.
Fry onions, peppers and garlic in olive oil in cast-iron skillet over medium heat.
Place tomatoes, fried vegetables and herbs in the large pot. Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer slowly with much stirring to prevent scorching. Continue simmering until sauce reduces to the level you measured on your wooden spoon.
Fill pressure canner with hot water and bring to boil. Place clean canning jars in bath to sterilize.
Ladle sauce into hot jars, leaving 1 inch head space. Adjust 2-piece caps. Place jars in canner, bring to 11 lbs pressure (adjust for altitudes above sea level), and process for 25 minutes.
Turn off heat and allow pressure to drop to 0 before removing lid. Remove rings, check seals, label and store.
If you have lots to do, using a pressure canner is annoyingly time-consuming. To do in a hot-water bath canner:
Proceed as above, but add 2 TB of lemon juice or 1/2 tsp citric acid or 1/2 tsp ascorbic acid to each quart before processing. This is necessary to acidify the sauce enough for safe canning without a pressure canner. If desired, add heat-stable sweetener equivalent to 1 TB of sugar per quart to offset acid taste.
Place jars in boiling-water bath and process for 40 minutes. Remove jars from canner and let cool. Remove rings, check seals, label and store.
I don’t stress about the tomato paste because you can buy it in glass and it is BPA-free. Bionaturae sells it in glass.
I personally dehydrate my own tomatoes and use that to make paste, but I know if I post that in the dead of winter, people will be asking the hows and whys and I can’t show them until summer. 😉 We won’t have tomatoes rolling in fresh for another few weeks here.
Oh, I’ve never seen paste in glass jars before…