Canning: How to Make Homemade Tomato Sauce

How many of you make your own homemade seasoned tomato sauce? I’ve been making my own sauce for the past 15 years! We have a backyard garden and always have plenty of tomatoes. What’s really cool about making it this way is that you can make a batch with as few as 10-12 large tomatoes or make a bigger batch with as many tomatoes that you have. Once you have it made…you can decide if you want preserve it by home canning or place it into your freezer. Either method works well.

* A Complimentary Bottle of GOYA Olive Oil was received & used in this recipe. This post contains affiliate links. See disclosure located below.

How to Make Homemade Tomato Sauce

1. Wash tomatoes. Place them in a big pot of boiling, salted water. Boil them for 2 minutes. Use a big spoon to fish them out and put them in a colander under cold running water to help cool them down. Once they are cool enough to handle, use your hands to gently peel off their skins.

2. Cut the tomatoes in half and then in quarters. Under a light running stream of water, rinse away the seeds. You will get most seeds out of there that way, but not all of them. A few seeds don’t bother us at all.

3. Put the tomato pulp into a blender. I use my NINJA because I find it does a fabulous job at processing the tomatoes into a fine sauce. Cover and blend for about 20 seconds or until all of the chunks are gone.

4. In a small skillet saute some chopped onion and green bell pepper in 1 to 2 tablespoons of GOYA Extra Virgin Olive Oil until the onions and peppers are cooked. I’m really picky about my olive oil, so I always use GOYA Extra Virgin Olive Oil when making my homemade tomato sauces.

5. Place the tomato sauce into a large pan. Stir in the sauteed onions and bell peppers. Add in basil, oregano, salt, ground black pepper, red pepper flakes, 1-2 tablespoons of GOYA Extra Virgin Olive Oil and granulated sugar according to your own taste buds. Simmer this mixture over low heat for 15-19 minutes, stirring every few minutes. Remove from heat.

6. Now your sauce is done. You can “can it” according to home canning instructions and using your water bath canner or let it completely cool and pour it into labeled freezer containers. You can find my personal step by step instructions on that HERE.

When I’m making up a large batch I will get out all of my home canning supplies and preserve it that way. If I have a small batch, I will pour my sauce into pint-size or quart-size mason jars, let it cool and then place them into my freezer. Both methods work extremely well.

I use this sauce when I’m making pasta dishes (spaghetti, lasagna, baked ziti, etc.), when I’m making a homemade tomato-based vegetable soup, making a meatloaf, stromboli’s, homemade pizzas, etc. It’s very versatile and you can spice it up and add to it once you decide which recipe you’re using it in. I will often add mushrooms, additional onions & peppers, ground beef, more spices, etc. Once I decide on which recipe I’m using my sauce in.

* This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, we may or may not receive a small commission which helps to support this site. A complimentary bottle of GOYA Extra Virgin Olive Oil was received and used in this recipe. No monetary compensation was received.