Home Canning Seasoned Tomato Sauce with Recipe and Tips

Every year I make sure we plant plenty of tomatoes in our backyard garden. We use fresh tomatoes all throughout the summer for salads, sandwiches, salsas, sliced & tossed on top of pizza, on burgers, etc. I like to preserve at least half of our harvest by making homemade tomato sauce and/or salsas for use during the winter.

You can find over 100+ home canning recipes on The Classy Chics blog.

The process is fairly simple but does take an afternoon to complete. You can use this seasoned tomato sauce (recipe below) when making spaghetti, lasagna, baked ziti, manicotti, a tomato-based vegetable soup, meatloaf and all kinds of other things. Use it in any recipe that calls for canned tomato sauce. You can certainly cut this recipe down to half if you don’t have enough fresh tomatoes available. I’ve successfully done that many times.

* This post contains affiliate links.

You will need a water bath canner, glass mason jars, basic canning supplies, etc. to make the following recipe. Tomato juice can stain so I recommend wearing an old t-shirt, an apron and using old kitchen linens when dealing with them.

The recipe will make approximately 14 pint jars or 7 quart jars of sauce. In addition to all of the ingredients listed below (Ball Blue Book) I add in 3 medium-sized finely chopped green bell peppers, along with 2 Tbsp. dried basil and 1 Tbsp. dried parsley. I omit the red pepper flakes. You can follow their recipe exactly below or try my additions which I think makes it much more flavorful.

Home Canning Seasoned Tomato Sauce Recipe

45 lbs. tomatoes (about 125-135 medium fresh tomatoes)
6 cups chopped onions (about 5-6 large onions)
12 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp. oregano
6 bay leaves
1 tbsp. ground black pepper
1 1/2 tbsp. granulated sugar
1/4 cup salt (optional)
2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Ball Citric Acid or bottled lemon juice

Prep: Wash tomatoes under cold running water, drain. Remove core and blossom ends. Cut tomatoes into quarters. Peel onions, chop onions. Peel garlic and mince.

Cook: Saute onion & garlic in olive oil in a large saucepan. Add tomatoes, oregano, bay leaves, black pepper & sugar. Stir in salt and crushed red pepper. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaves. Puree tomato mixture using an electric food strainer or food mill to remove peels and seeds. Return puree to saucepan. Cook puree, uncovered over medium-high heat until puree thickens, stirring to prevent sticking. Cook until volume is reduced by one-half.

Fill: Add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid or 1 tbsp. bottled lemon juice to a hot pint jar, 1/2 tsp. citric acid or 2 tbsp. bottled lemon juice to a hot quart jar. Ladle hot sauce into jar, leaving 1/2? headspace. Remove air bubbles. Clean jar rim, center lid on jar and adjust band to finger-tip tight. Place jar on the rack elevated over simmering water (180 degrees F) in boiling water canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.

Process: Lower the rack into the simmering water. The water must cover the jars by 1?. Adjust heat to medium-high, cover canner and bring water to a full boil. Process pint jars for 35 minutes or quart jars for 40 minutes. Turn off heat and remove cover. Let jars cool for 5 minutes. Remove jars from canner, do not retighten bands if loose. Cool for 12 hours. Test seals, label and store jars.

* 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. Thank you!