Nine.

Canned tomatoes are a necessity when you live in a city like Vancouver. The winters are long, wet and dark. A friend and fellow Vancouverite once told me that until he was around 10 years old he believed that winter skies were gray. He thought that the sun went away and the blue skies were replaced with gray ones. From November until April most people go to work in the dark and come home in the dark; by the time light has squeezed through the heavy clouds, it is weak and thin, and it is often gone by 4PM. So by January or February, when it has been months since you have seen blue skies and you know it will be months more until you see them again, summer has taken on the haze of a dream. You want to believe it's true, but you can't quite be sure. On a wet winter day, opening a can of tomatoes and tasting the sun is worth more than you can imagine.My mom has a kitchen set up in her basement for just this purpose and is a canning Queen. So I carried myself off to her kitchen, where she and I canned both tomatoes and tomato sauce.Mamma makes basic tomato sauce the same way my grandmother did:
Chop onions, carrots, garlic and saute them in olive oil until
transparent
Add the crushed or chopped tomatoes and basil leaves, making sure
to continue to "break" the tomatoes against the side of the saucepan-
also important is not to bruise the basil leaves when drying or cutting
them
Cook until the liquid has evaporated and the vegetables are cooked through
Pass everything, including the tomato skins, through a vegetable mill
Roast in a baking pan or continue to cook over the stove until the sauce
has reduced by 1/3 or is thick and rich
Add some olive oil to the top (do not mix in) and allow to coolI left her home with not only my tomatoes, but lots of fresh spinach to prepare and freeze and a box full of mixed vegetables to clean, cut and freeze for use in minestrone. Seems like I'll be tasting summer for a long time.