Ever since I learned how to make and can my own tomato sauce I can’t bear to buy any pre-made sauce from the grocery store anymore! The freshness of a summer tomato harvest cooked into a perfect sauce is worth the work it takes to prepare and can it. It is actually very easy and after a day’s worth of work you can have enough jars of sauce for the entire year. The recipe possibilities are endless with this tomato sauce as a base: homemade pizza sauce, hearty lasagna, or weeknight spaghetti and meatballs to name a few. In this post I will go through the process I learned as well as some important factors for proper preservation. I used 3 bushels of fresh tomatos and ended up with about 22 jars of sauce.
Here is what you will need:
- Roma tomatoes, cleaned and cored (remove slimy seeds in middle)
- Quart or Pint Ball canning jars, lids, and rings
- Water bath canning pots
- citric acid powder (preservative, can find anywhere canning supplies are sold)
- salt, pepper, fresh garlic, and basil leaves
- food grinder with juicer attachment
The first step is cleaning and preparing the tomatos. I like to use fresh Roma tomatos for my sauce as they have much less water content and make for a richer, thicker sauce. I wash the tomatos, then cut in half to remove the seeds and loose pulp. This part takes the longest so once you get through all this cleaning the process goes a bit quicker. I cook down the tomatos for about 10 minutes to soften them up and release their juices.
Next, I will run all the tomatos through a food ginder with juicer attachment. I used both my trusty Kitchenaid mixer with the attachments and also a larger unit. Both work just fine, the Kitchenaid set-up is better for smaller batches in my opinion. Now, this is the messy part of the process. The picture below in in the middle of extracting the pulp from tomatos and as you can see, do this part in a place that can be covered and easily cleaned.
Now that you have extracted all of the “good stuff” from the tomatos, it’s time to make your sauce. The smells that will fill your kitchen are fantastic! Saucey tomatos, fresh basil, garlic…oh my!
I like to cook down the sauce a bit and lightly season before I can it, but if you prefer to have just the tomatos that is fine. I typically cook the sauce for about one hour. I put some salt and pepper as well as a clove of crushed garlic into each stockpot.
While the sauce is cooking down, this is a good time to prepare your canning jars. Proper preservation requires the jars to be boiled for 10 minutes prior to filling to prevent any bacteria. After the clean jars are boiled, set aside until sauce is done.
Now that your canning pots are boiling, the jars are cleaned, and sauce is ready, it’s time to fill the jars. The lids should sit in some warm water to loosen up the seal. Each jar needs 1/4 tsp. of citric acid and can ladel the sauce up to the rim of the jar. It is important not to fill to the top as the sauce needs room for pressure from boiling. Jars can break if they are over-filled. I add 1-2 leaves of fresh basil to the jar. Then put the lid on the jar and add a rim “hand tight,” not over-tightened. According to Ball Canning, pint jars need 35 minutes and quart jars need 40 minutes of time in the boiling water.
Finally, the sauce is done! Use caution when removing the jars from the water bath and set on a towel to cool. You will hear the “pop! pop!” of the lids as they seal. Once cooled, it’s a good idea to add a label and date your sauce, typically it keeps well for about 1 year.
Now you have a full stock of delicious tomato sauce to enjoy the entire year! Happy cooking!
