Home canned Pasta Sauce is an absolute must in our house. I always plant an insane amount of tomatoes because it is, by far, the vegetable I can the most. From salsa, sauce, diced, pasta sauce… we put up SO many tomatoes!
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Perfect Pasta Sauce
Luckily I have found a great (tested/safe) recipe that fits our family needs. It incorporates other vegetables (carrots/celery) and herbs and is a water bath safe recipe!
There are many more options for canned pasta sauce when canning with a pressure canner but it is always nice to have a recipe on hand that can be safely processed in a water bath. However, Ball Canning has only approved this for pint size jars.
This is an excellent spaghetti sauce recipe but works great for all pasta dishes. Lasagna, ravioli, ziti… it’s delicious in all of them!
Even though tomatoes would seem to be a high-acid food, they aren’t in the canning world. Extra acid, in the form of citric acid or lemon juice, is needed to make this a water bath safe recipe but I don’t find it affects the flavor in any way.
This recipe comes from my “canning bible”, The Complete Book of Home Preserving. I absolutely love this book and highly recommend!
Recommended: Canning Book Review
Extra Herbs Please
To make this recipe perfect for my family, I add more herbs. Interestingly enough, herbs are one thing which can be adjusted safely. Dried herbs, that is.
There is less control over fresh herbs (quality, cleanliness, measurement) and total pH can be adversely affected due to the water in the fresh herbs. Because of this, dried is recommended (unless specified in the tested recipe).
Word of caution: do not over-do the herbs. The flavor can intensify with canning so it is wise to not increase the herbs by more than 1/4 tsp per pint at first.
The pasta sauce recipe below is the original “Italian-Style Tomato Sauce” with my adjustments added to the notes.
More canning recipes:
Canning season is always absolutely crazy for me (add in starting a new school year and one of my kiddos birthdays… I’m typically a hot mess) but the work is beyond worth it when I am able to “shop” my canning room all year long.
This pasta sauce is a family favorite of ours and I hope you consider adding it to your own home canning list!
Happy Canning!
~Melissa
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Pasta Sauce Canning Recipe
Ingredients
- 8 cups fresh plum tomato puree
- 2/3 cup finely chopped onion
- 2/3 cup finely chopped celery
- 1/2 cup finely chopped carrot
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 4 tbsp bottled lemon juice
- 2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp hot red pepper flakes
Instructions
- Prepare canner, jars and lids
- In large stainless steel saucepan, combine 1 cup of tomato puree, onion, celery, carrot and garlic. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring frequently. Reduce heat, cover and boil gently until vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes.
- Keep mixture boiling and add remaining tomato puree, 1 cup and a time, stirring frequently. Stir in lemon juice, salt, black peper, and hot pepper flakes. Increase heat to high, bring to a full rolling boil. Boil hard, stirring frequently, until mixture is reduced by 1/3 (about 15 minutes).
- Ladle hot sauce into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if necessary. Wipe rim. Place lid and tighten band to fingertip-tight.
- Place jars in canner, all jars completely covered with water. Bring to a boil and process 35 minutes. Remove lid, wait 5 minutes, then remove jars, cool and store.
