Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce is FAR better than anything you can find in a store. You’ll love the rich, savory flavor. The best way to use fresh garden tomatoes!
This canned spaghetti sauce is HANDS-DOWN the very best with home-grown tomatoes. We are kind of crazy about our tomatoes over here.
Tomatoes: A Family Tradition
Growing tomatoes is a “family tradition” of sorts for us. Our Uncle Larry is arguably the best gardener ever. He always has an immaculate garden, and has studied and taught about gardening. The man knows ALL the tricks to get plants to grow. Uncle Larry has 10 green thumbs! His techniques have been passed around the family, lucky for us. He shared his secrets with our mom, who also grows a bountiful garden every year. To learn more about our tips and tricks for growing tomatoes, click here.
Tomato growing is our family’s way to connect year after year. We compare notes on everything from how our crops are faring, to what varieties we planted, to what has been canned so far. And of course, we love talking about all the delicious ways we can eat them!
Along with the abundance of tomatoes comes a million ways to prepare them. One of our fondest memories growing up with our mom was making her delicious Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce. We’ve tweaked the recipe over the years and now it’s darn near perfection!
Family Tested, Dad Approved
Part of the reason we worked so hard to perfect this canned spaghetti sauce recipe is because of our dad. To know him is to know his passionate love for Italian food. He is super picky about spaghetti sauce; it has to be just right. Well, we’re happy to report that we served this sauce at family dinner recently and our dad loved it! He couldn’t get enough. In fact, he used a spoon to get all the excess off his plate. He’s crazy about this savory sauce, and you will be too!
How Can I Use Canned Spaghetti Sauce?
The name may say spaghetti, but this sauce is so versatile it’s sure to become one of your favorite staples, and not just on pasta night. Try it in these delicious recipes:
- Lasagna
- Stuffed Shells
- Chicken Parmesan
- Chicken Cacciatore
- Minestrone Soup
- Pizza Sauce, simply add a little extra tomato paste to thicken it up.
Water Bath Canning Spaghetti Sauce
This particular recipe for canned spaghetti sauce hasn’t been “officially” tested for water-bath canning. However, after MUCH research, we’ve found that if you add lemon juice to the jars this recipe is acidic enough for canning. Tomatoes are in the “gray area” of having enough acidity, so they might be just fine on their own. But adding a bit of lemon juice ensures their acidity. If you’re still worried, you can pressure can them or add more lemon juice or red wine vinegar.
UPDATE: This recipe has been tried and LOVED by many of you. Be sure to check out the comments to see everyone’s reviews about this canned spaghetti sauce.
Still Not Sure About Canning? Your Questions Answered!
We get it; canning can be intimidating for some. But stick with us here, we can help you!
Can I Add Ground Beef to the Canned Spaghetti Sauce?
- ONLY if you are going to pressure can it OR if you freeze it instead of canning it (or you just want to eat it fresh or within a few days). Do not add ground beef if you are planning to water-bath can or steam can — it will not be safe to eat after sitting on the shelf.
Can I Add ___(fill in the blank)___ to this recipe?
- Be really careful when adding or omitting ingredients to a canning recipe. You are usually fine adding spices but when it comes to adding more produce, meat or anything else it could throw off the acidity levels, thus making unsafe for canning.
How long does Canned Spaghetti Sauce last on the shelf?
- We usually try to eat anything that we have canned within a year. You can probably go a couple years but probably not much longer than that. Some canning sites even say you shouldn’t go more than 6 months, but I think you are fine going longer than that.
Can I freeze the sauce instead of canning it?
- Absolutely! This spaghetti sauce recipe freezes beautifully and lasts for several months in freezer bags or freezer-safe containers. Just make sure to thaw the sauce completely in the refrigerator before re-heating. If you DO want to add more random ingredients like ground beef or extra veggies, freezing is a good way to go if you are worried about acidity levels.
Is this sauce gluten free?
- The only ingredient that has any gluten in this recipe is the soy sauce. It sounds weird to even have soy sauce in a spaghetti sauce recipe but trust us, it is divine! Instead of cutting the soy sauce, opt for a gluten free brand. The rich flavor will knock your socks off!
How to Make Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 25 Lbs. tomatoes
- 5 onions
- 4 large red bell peppers
- 1 large green bell pepper
- 4 (6oz) cans tomato paste
- 1/4 c. soy sauce Sounds weird, but trust us, it deepens the tomato flavor like you won't believe!
- 3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2/3 cup brown sugar packed
- 1/4 cup salt
- 10 cloves garlic chopped or minced
- 3 tablespoons oregano dried
- 3 tablespoons basil dried
- 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 1/4 cups lemon juice for jars
Instructions
- Fill a large pot or Dutch oven half-way with water, bring to a boil. Using a slotted spoon, add tomatoes one at a time until you can't fit any more (about 8-10 tomatoes).
- Boil for 1-2 minutes. Remove tomatoes one at a time with slotted spoon and plunge in an icewater bath. Peel and quarter tomatoes.
- In a food processor, cover and process green peppers and onions in batches until finely chopped (if you want to add extra flavor, saute the peppers and onions in a little oil and a pinch of salt before processing).
- In a large stockpot, combine the tomatoes (do not discard excess juices from the tomatoes), onion/pepper mixture, tomato paste, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, salt, garlic, oregano, basil, pepper flakes, and bay leaves.
- Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 4-5 hours, stirring every 15 minutes or so (tomatoes burn easily so keep an eye on it). Discard bay leaves.
- If you want to make your sauce thick and smooth, use an immersion blender to blend the tomatoes until smooth with no large chunks (you can also blend it in batches in a blender).
- Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice to 9 or 10 hot 1-quart jars (depending on how much sauce you have).
- Ladle hot mixture into jars, leaving 1/2-in. headspace at the top. Remove air bubbles; wipe rims and adjust lids. Process for 40 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
George J Terplan says
Would it be possible to use Roma tomatoes for this recipe?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Absolutely!
George J Terplan says
I just made this sauce and while it’s good I was wondering what type of onions you use in your recipe. Also since I couldn’t find good tomatoes in my area I decided to use whole plum tomatoes that were canned. I used 15 cans and the 4 tomato paste, but I feel like I should have added more paste since it’s not as thick as I would have liked.
Mamma Jes says
Hi! I’m new to canning and followed this recipe, however, after reading a few other canning recipes, the boiling water bath instructed to bring to a rolling boil. However I started timing at a gentle boil, like I saw a few boil bubbles and started to time it, and did the full 40 minutes. Is a boil a boil or does this make my canning method unsafe? Even after the 40 minutes of a boiling water bath it never came to a full rolling boil. Made me think such a huge pot wouldn’t actually come to a rolling boil.
Erica Walker says
You probably want to have the water be at a full boil before starting the timer. Did all of your cans seal? I can’t tell you for sure whether it is safe or not. You might have to make that call. If you are unsure, you could possible contact someone at foodsafety (dot) org and get a more definite answer. Sorry I can’t be of much help here!
Patti Steskal says
Going to try this today. Just wondering if you can use fresh herbs instead of dried? Or will that effect the final PH level?
Favorite Family Recipes says
We haven’t tried it with fresh herbs, so we can’t speak to how it would affect this recipe.
Kandi says
My husband and I grew all the vegetables in our garden and bought the rest of the ingredients, this year we are going to grow herbs as well. My entire family raves over this spaghetti sauce, 5 stars, none of us have ever had a sauce as good as this, except the children under 5. So this year we are halving the red pepper flakes so they can enjoy it like the rest of us. Thank you so much for sharing!
Favorite Family Recipes says
This is awesome!!! We are so glad your family loves this recipe as much as ours does! Thanks for the wonderful review!
Susan says
Can you pressure can this instead of water bath?
Erica Walker says
Absolutely!
Gary says
I did. 25 minutes at 11 lbs per quart.
Kathryn Barnes says
I made this recipe this week and it is fantastic. I had some canned tomatoes from last summer I wanted to use up and thought I would give it a try. Five quarts of canned tomatoes worked out great. I am picky about my spaghetti sauce and I adore this recipe! Next time I will use a tiny bit less brown sugar but that is just my taste preference. Excellent and easy recipe. Thank you!!!
Erica says
Hi Kathryn- thank you so much for your kind comment! Thanks for sharing how you made this a success with your pre-canned tomatoes. Great tip!
Kathy Partain (South Mills, North Carolina) says
This spaghetti sauce is everything and more you talked about! I am a 1st time sauce canner and although the cooking process of 4-5 hours was long, it was worth it. My sauce turned out amazing! I will not try any other receipt. Thank you so much for sharing. I just need more tomatoes to ripen. Thinking I need to stock pile this sauce. It is going to go fast!👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤️💕🍅🍅🍅
Emily Walker says
Thank you so much for your kind review, so glad you love the Spaghetti Sauce and your first time canning it was a success! It goes pretty fast at our house too, haha!
Shelia says
Do you have to use the sugar?
Erica Walker says
You don’t HAVE to use the sugar but it will make the sauce taste better. It gives it a tasty dimension. Hope this helps!
Dan Allred says
My tomatoes are non existent this year because of the weather. Can a person buy tomato sauce and substitute that for the fresh ones?
Erica Walker says
A great substitution is the canned crushed San Marzano tomatoes. You can also try our spaghetti sauce if you don’t have the amount you need for canning. You can either use fresh tomatoes or crushed tomatoes. Hope this helps!
Linda says
Can you make the sauce, refrigerate it overnight, then reheat the next day and then can?
Erica Walker says
Any time you heat and cool and reheat and cool, you are increasing the risk of food bourne illness. I would suggest canning right after heating. Hope this helps!
Kathy L says
This sauce is delicious. Made exactly as is. Will definitely make again
Meg says
Could you omit the tomato paste by removing excess juice from the tomatoes?
Erica Walker says
You could do that but the yield will be quite a bit less. I can’t tell you how much less for sure because we haven’t done that before, so if you try it, let us know how much you yield!
Liz says
My sauce is really runny! What could I do to thicken it?
Erica Walker says
You can let it cook down more or add tomato paste. Hope this helps!
Sophia says
This recipe is so great! I just finished my canning tonight and I’m super happy with how everything turned out! I used liquid aminos in place of soy sauce so my sauce would be gluten free but otherwise followed the recipe. Thanks for posting it!
Echo Blickenstaff says
I’m so glad you are happy with this recipe. I love your gluten-free revision and with your permission will add that as a note on the recipe. The work of canning will be so worth it when you enjoy this spaghetti sauce throughout the year. It is delicious!
Lizzy J says
What happens if you have sauce that comes out of the jars during the water bath. They are sealed but have sauce on the sides and in the water
Erica Walker says
I think as long as they sealed you should be fine. The jars were probably just a little too full. If you are worried about it, you can always clean them up and re-process or keep them in the fridge and use them within the next couple weeks. Hope this helps!
Diana Brumleve says
Can you please tell me what the lemon juice does and why you use it? It’s my first time making this recipe and I don’t want sour…we are more of a sweet sauce family.
Erica Walker says
It won’t be sour. It is to make the sauce more acidic to make it safe for canning. You won’t even taste the lemon juice, promise 🙂
Karen says
Is that 2 tbsp of lemon juice in each jar?
Favorite Family Recipes says
Yep!
Terikitley says
Best ever been canning this recipe ever since I found it best around
Thanks
Erica Walker says
Thank you so much! Have you gotten lots of batches this year?
Samuel walker says
Mine turned out better than a jar from the super market. My first batch didn’t, (to thin, to much water perhaps from the blanching and not properly straining) BUT it took a considerable amount of time. I ended up with almost 8 jars and I had 6 hours into it. And to be clear i want to say the flavor was better then a jar from the store. Cost was almost the same and I provide my own tomatoes. But for 6 hours and almost 8 jars, I personally would of needed it to be more then “better then a jar from the store” to invest 6 hours of my time again. I have only been canning for a couple years. I can spend less money and not even half the time on a salsa recipe that’s amazing. My point is, it’s time consuming so plan on that. I’m not complaining, and the recipe tells you this from the start. I just wanted to reiterate that to anyone considering giving this a go
Lynn says
I have read through all these comments and I can’t believe no one else had any problems with the sauce sticking to the bottom and eventually burning. I used a large stock pot, stirred the sauce a LOT, actually more like every 5 or 10 minutes, the element was on medium low so that it was barely simmering. The sauce turned quite dark as it was simmering but as comments indicate above, I thought it was the worchestershire sauce or maybe the soy sauce, but when I was putting it in jars and got to the bottom of the pot it was quite burned. The sauce doesn’t taste burned though… is this burned bottom normal or do I just have a cheap pot? Also, I would like to see the superchef who can do the prep in 20 minutes… it took me over an hour just to peel all those tomatoes!
Erica Walker says
Hi Lynn– We have a heavy canning stock pot so we have never had issues with burning. If you consistently have a burning problem I am guessing it has something to do with your pot. Also, we will double check that prep time to make sure it is more accurate. Thanks for catching that!
Ingrid says
Step 7 calls for adding lemon juice to hot 1-quart jars. Does that mean I’d have to boil the jars prior to putting in the sauce. I have never tried canning before so I just want to be sure that I’m following all the steps to ensure safety. Also, rather than simmering for 4-5 hours uncovered on the stove, would it be possible to do this step in a slow cooker?
Erica Walker says
No, you don’t need to boil them. I either just run them through the dishwasher or you can rinse and dry them. This is just so the jars are clean and sanitized before putting food in them.
You can do it in a slow cooker but the purpose of doing is to get the sauce to reduce down and thicken. When it is covered in a slow cooker, condensation will form on the lid and drip back down into the sauce. If you did it in a slow cooker I would leave the lid off so it has a chance to simmer down a bit. Hope this helps!
Laura says
I would like to add ground beef to this canning recipe. I’ve use beef before in the recipies and would like to do the same with this one. I only pressure can when using ground beef. However, you never mentioned how much ground beef would go into this recipe. I add citric acid to my quart jars as well to make sure there’s enough acid. Thank you
Erica Walker says
I have never used ground beef in the recipe before because I don’t have a pressure canner. It really depends on how meaty you want it. You could probably use at least 7 pounds. Sorry if this isn’t every helpful– if you try it, please come back and let us know how it turns out!
George says
I was thinking of adding some zucchini and shredded carrots. Dont have preasure canner just reg canning. Will adding such items make sauce un eatable with regular canning process?
Erica Walker says
If you plan to pressure can it, you could probably add zucchini and carrots. For regular canning, I’m not sure how those ingredients will work with the acidity levels. If I were to guess, I would say you may want to leave them out. When it comes to canning it is better to take the more cautionary route. Just my opinion though. Sorry if this isn’t much help!
Dolores says
OH MY DELICIOUSNESS!!!! This recipe is a keeper! So many will make changes without first trying it the way it’s written. I like to make a recipe as is and then if I want to change it a bit to suite my tastes, I’m ok with it. BUT, don’t change it until you try it the original way! This recipe is perfect. The only problem I had was it didn’t cook down. It might be that I didn’t have the heat high enough. I’ve tried different recipes and this will be my go-to from now on! SOOOO GOOD! Thank you!!!
Emily Walker says
Thank you!! I am so glad you liked it and I totally agree. You’ve got to just try it before making adjustments!
Jenny says
Hi
I’m getting ready to make this after we are on our last big batch of tomatoes. However one recommendation I would have your recipe at the end talks about putting the jars in a boiling water canner.
This will automatically make most first time canners think they need something special versus an accurate water bath in a great pot.
Erica Walker says
If you prefer canning in a large pot, you definitely can, it’s just not what we have tried so we can’t fully recommend it. A water bath or steam canner is what we have used with success and it is what we can comfortably recommend. Thanks for your comment though, I am sure many of our readers will find it helpful!
Rachele Jones says
Just finished making this and let me tell you it taste amazing. It takes all day to make it but so worth it. Definitely adding this to my recipe box and will be making it every year. Thank you for sharing this recipe
Erica Walker says
So glad you liked it! Canning always takes forever but always worth it! Thank you so much for your nice comment!
Shirley Meadows says
This is our new favorite spaghetti sauce recipe to can. My granddaughter won’t eat any other spaghetti sauce now. This was our second year of making it and we just love it. Thank you so much for sharing it with everyone.
Favorite Family Recipes says
Thank you so much!! We love when our family favorites become your family favorites!