Tomato Sauce Recipe for a Water Bath Canning
Wondering what to do with all those beautiful red tomatoes coming out of your backyard garden this summer? How about making a versatile tomato sauce. A sauce that you can safely water bath can and keep on your shelf until you need it for fantastic recipes like my ultimate spaghetti and meatballs or white cheddar meatloaf with cowboy tomato jam.
I only preserve plain sauce without extra herbs and spices added – the spices found in spaghetti, pizza, or chili sauces. I like to be able to use my tomato sauce for any recipe I have, like my family’s favorite chili’s spaghetti sauce for Italian dishes, tomato soup, and amazing toppings for meatloaves.
When you scroll down, you will notice this recipe has not cost analysis listed for the ingredients. There is a good reason for that. I find the easiest way to preserve my tomato harvest is to can them as I pick them. Therefore, I may can a small number of mason jars several times in the season. I find this helps keep all my fruit and vegetables fresher.
This recipe was taken from So Easy to Preserve cookbook written by the University of Georgia. All images and text are all my own and original to One Acre Vintage Homestead – Pumpkin Patch Mountain Homestead.
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Tomato Sauce for Canning
Cooking Methods
- Water Bath Canner
- Mason Jars, Lids, and Rings
Ingredients
- tomatoes, halved
- bottled lemon juice
- salt
Instructions
- Wash, remove stems, cut away bruised or black sections, and cut into halves.
- Put all tomatoes into stockpot and heat on low to medium heat until they are soft and able to be pureed or crushed.
- I like to use immersion hand blender to puree tomatoes.
- Take off heat and press pureed mixture through sieve or food mill to remove all seeds and skins.
- Put back on heat and simmer on low boil until tomato sauce thickens. Stir often. Volume should reduce by 1/2 for thick sauce consistency.
- Prepare your water bath canning equipment including mason jars, lids and rings.
- To every hot pint size mason jar add 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tbsp. bottled lemon juice.
- Ladle in hot tomato sauce to mason jars leaving 1/4 inch headspace.
- Wipe rims of jars, attach lids and rings finger tight and process for 30 minutes.