How to Make Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Canning Recipe Tutorial
This post may contain affiliate links, view our disclosure policy for details.
Officially our most popular homemade spaghetti sauce canning recipe! You can use fresh tomatoes from your garden or buy produce at your local grocery store for this recipe!
You guys know that I’ve been growing a rather extensive garden this year and guess what? It’s time for harvesting!! I’ve already made several batches of bread & butter pickles, frozen apple pies, made applesauce, canned homemade salsa, and I’ve got quite the list to go!
I also made an amazingly simple batch of bruschetta and I still want to try ketchup so we’ll see how that goes! But I wanted to share with you how I made spaghetti sauce because it was so simple!
I know, spaghetti sauce is so cheap to buy at the store but making it homemade is incredibly more flavorful and you can can it for later too! As you can imagine you’ll need PLENTY of tomatoes and PLENTY of mason jars for this recipe!
A lot of my recipes are done with tweaking a little bit here and there to my personal desire but this is the recipe I pretend to follow most of the time. You’ll need about 15 pounds of fresh tomatoes to blanch. Now if you’ve never blanched tomatoes it’s EASY peasy.
If you appreciate this free content and would like to help contribute in a small way in helping me continue providing free educational resources for others, feel free to send a token of your appreciation via Paypal here. Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. Shop through your favorite Etsy store or use our Amazon link to make your purchases!
How do I blanch tomatoes?
Just dump some tomatoes into a large stockpot of boiling water for about 1-2 minutes, and then immediately remove them and dump them into a pot of ice cold water. If you look closely at the photo below in step 3 you’ll see that the skin has actually split off of the tomatoes – perfect!
When you’re done just peel the skin right off!
Cut your tomatoes into smaller pieces discarding the core/stem. Don’t worry about the seeds – I just leave them in there. You can remove them if you want but plan on adding an extra hour in if you want to get all of your seeds out! It’s pretty time consuming and if you leave them in they’ll end up dissolving right into your sauce anyway.
To make my life a heck of a lot easier I use this large canner pot to help hold my tomatoes.
Next you’ll want to take two large onions and pop them into your food processor (I use this one for all my bulk work). If you don’t have a food processor consider purchasing a small one (this one is under $14) or you can cut up the onions as small as you can get them.
Cut them in the food processor and then dump them into your tomato pile. Then cut up 2-3 green bell peppers and add them to the mix. Mince & add 1/2 head of garlic (or 1 tsp. of the pre-minced garlic). Add 2 cans of tomato paste to help thicken it up.
Simmer it on your stove top for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally as not to burn the bottom! Add 1 Tbsp. oregano, 2 tsp. thyme, 2 tsps. rosemary, 1 Tbsp. lemon basil, and 1 Tbsp. Worcester sauce. Sprinkle in a bit of salt and pepper. Simmer 10-30 minutes depending on how thin/thick you want your sauce!
I canned my spaghetti sauce so I set up my mason jars with the canning funnel directly next to the pot and scooped it right in! I used the water bath to can them for 40 minutes to seal properly. This made about 4 quarts of spaghetti sauce for me!
So that’s it! A lot of just letting everything sit in the pot until it cooks. It’s amazing how the tomatoes will literally just dissolve right down into the sauce!
I HIGHLY recommend using Ball’s Dissolvable Labels since they wash right off when you wash the jar BUT a tip for these is to store your labels in the fridge – it makes them much easier to peel off! And if you prefer a hands-on cookbook this Ball Canning Cookbook has hundreds of recipes for you to try!
Check out these 7 tomato sauce recipes!
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Canning Recipe
Simple homemade spaghetti sauce canning recipe with garden fresh tomatoes!
Ingredients
- 15 lbs. Tomatoes (approx. 30-40 tomatoes)
- 2 Lrg. Onions
- 2-3 Green Bell Peppers
- ½ head Garlic
- 2 6 oz. Cans Tomato Paste
- 1 Tbsp. Oregano
- 2 tsp. Thyme
- 2 tsp. Rosemary
- 1 Tbsp. Lemon Basil
- 1 Tbsp. Worcester Sauce
- Salt
- Pepper
Instructions
-
Blanch 15 lbs. tomatoes then cut into pieces.
-
Discard core/stem.
-
Puree 2 large onions in food processor then add to tomatoes.
-
Chop 2-3 bell peppers into small pieces and add to tomatoes.
-
Mince ½ head garlic and add to tomatoes.
-
Add 2 cans tomato paste.
-
Simmer 30 minutes.
-
Add all spices and Worcester Sauce.
-
Simmer 10-30 minutes depending on thickness.
-
Can or store as desired.
Recipe Notes
This spaghetti sauce recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, quadrupled or more! Just keeping adding tomatoes and ingredients until you’re satisfied with the flavor!
Enjoy some MORE of our delicious recipes below!
Recipes:
Flavorful Pumpkin Pie
Homemade Bruschetta
Super Simple Apple Pie
Homemade Bread & Butter Pickles
Southern Banana Cream Pie
Artisan Beef Puff
Follow Surviving a Teacher’s Salary on Pinterest.
Do u hot water bath these
Yes I do!
do you add any lemon juice or anything for acidity
No I don’t – I find that the tomatoes are enough!
Can you add mushrooms or other vegetables to this recipe?
Yes you definitely could! It’s one of those recipes you can add and tweak anything you like!
Be careful though. If you add mushrooms and other veggies the Ph changes.
Have you ever frozen this recipe?
No I haven’t but I’m sure it would be fine!
I have never canned anything. Can you give me some tips? How long does the food last in the jars?
Thanks!
As long as the jars are sealed Roz they are good! You can tell by the little “pop up” feature on the middle of the lid. I find, however, that I usually use all of my jars within a year!
If you are interested in canning get a “Ball Blue Book.” It will give you directions to safely can and process all kinds of foods and sauces. When you add non-acidic foods like mushrooms and peppers–it can change the method for safely canning you sauce. It is important to follow canning recipes and do them safely to avoid food spoilage.
Spaghetti is one of those dishes that always feels like such a classic, family meal. Your tomato sauce looks really good. Thank you for linking at the In and Out of the Kitchen Link Party. Hope to see you again next week.
What size of tomato paste cans?
I used the small 6-8 oz cans
We like a sweeter sauce – can brown sugar be added?
I’m sure it could!!
Finally recipe that I don’t have to cook down for 4 – 5 hours. I have a TON of tomatoes from our garden (18 plants this year – WAY too much) and we have never made spaghetti sauce – this year we are going to because I just have too much to keep making salsa!!! Any good recipes for say stewed tomatoes or other ways to can them? Thanks again – can’t wait to get home and make this recipe – looks totally easy “peasy”!
You’re welcome!! 🙂 For stewed tomatoes honestly I just blanch Romas (or whatever I have on hand), cut them up and throw them in my mason jars! It seriously couldn’t be easier and is my “go to” for all those extra tomatoes I just am too tired to cook or prep!
Thank you so much for this. It is exactly what I was looking for, and very helpful!
Thanks for giving us of your time.
So… if I have a big overload of tomatoes and I’m too tired to make them into something, I can just blanch, throw into Mason jars, water bath, and then in the depths of winter, spend time creatively transforming those delicious little devils. That’s truly a great approach. Not just for tomatoes.
If I have quarts of blanched, canned tomatoes, how many quarts would you estimate to be about 15 pounds of tomatoes?
I’m not sure – perhaps about 4? You can taste test and adjust as needed!
When we make spaghetti, we always just chop up hamburger meat then add to the store bought sauce. Wonder if I could add the meat to the sauce and can it together? I’m glad I found you. You’ve got lots of good ideas. I’ve not canned in several years so I’m needing to refresh my memory…(the joys of getting old lol)
If you add meat to the sauce you must pressure can it. Water bath canning is not appropriate for meat sauce. See USDA website or the Blue Book for directions.
in the past I have always peeled the tomatoes I don’t see that in your instruction what do u think
I’ve tried both ways to be honest and I actually don’t bother blanching/peeling them anymore! I just let them all boil down in the pot and pick up the large skins in one lump!
Did you use fresh or dried spices?
Although now I kind of wing it for this recipe I used fresh. I usually just use whatever I have on hand at the time!
I am making this now and could not find any lemon basil,I have never even heard of lemon basil, should I add a bit of lemon juice to it and how much should I use if thats the case.
The lemon basil isn’t necessary! When I can’t find it I just skip it 🙂
Will the water bath be ok in high altitude areas
Yes I believe it will be.
I asked this earlier, and there has been no update. What size cans of tomatoe paste did you use, since there are several different sizes??
I’m sorry you missed it! I’ve used various amounts over the years but 6 oz. cans are what I usually use.