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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! Canning spaghetti sauce is easy and rewarding and makes for the best pasta sauce ever!
Featured with this recipe
- Ingredients in Canned Spaghetti Sauce
- Why Can Spaghetti Sauce?
- Tomatoes: A Family Tradition
- Family Tested, Dad Approved
- How Can I Use Canned Spaghetti Sauce?
- Water Bath Canning Spaghetti Sauce
- Pressure Canning Spaghetti Sauce
- Frequently Asked Questions about Canned Spaghetti Sauce
- More Delicious Pasta Recipes
- How to Make Canned Spaghetti Sauce
- Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
This canned spaghetti sauce is HANDS-DOWN, the very best with home-grown tomatoes. We are kind of crazy about our tomatoes over here. The taste of this savory tomato sauce stays fresh and turns any pasta dinner into something special.
Ingredients in Canned Spaghetti Sauce
All you need for perfect spaghetti sauce are some herbs, spices and of course, fresh ripe tomatoes! This sauce couldn’t be simpler to make:
- Tomatoes – about 25 pounds. This recipe makes a huge batch of tomato puree.
- Onions – I start with about five large yellow onions. You’ll end up with 7-8 cups chopped onions.
- Red bell peppers – four large peppers work great.
- Green bell pepper – dice one large pepper
- Tomato paste – four 6-ounce cans should do the trick.
- Soy sauce – Sounds weird, but trust us, it deepens the tomato flavor like you won’t believe!
- Worcestershire sauce – stir in a little sauce to enhance the flavor of the tomatoes and give the sauce a meaty flavor.
- Brown sugar – a little sweetness balances the acidity of the tomatoes and all the herbs.
- Salt – a quarter cup, plus more to taste.
- Garlic – you’ll need a LOT of garlic, chopped or minced. Start with ten cloves.
- Oregano – I usually use dried herbs for this recipe.
- Basil – again, dried works great!
- Red pepper flakes – a little goes a long way with these spicy flakes. Start with a teaspoon and add more depending on your tastes.
- Bay leaves – two leaves give such delicious flavor.
- Lemon juice – for the jars
Why Can Spaghetti Sauce?
Canning spaghetti sauce offers several great benefits. It may take a little time up front but I love the satisfaction of walking into my pantry and seeing rows of freshly canned spaghetti sauce jars! Here are some more great benefits to canning:
- Long-term preservation: Enjoy homemade sauce even when fresh tomatoes are out of season.
- Control over ingredients: Customize the flavors, spices, and level of heat to suit personal taste preferences.
- Convenience and time-saving: Have ready-to-use sauce on hand for quick and easy meal preparations.
- Cost-effective: Save money by utilizing homegrown or bulk-purchased ingredients.
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, luckily 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, see our full guide.
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 marinara sauce is so versatile, it’s sure to become one of your favorite staples, and not just on pasta night. Try it as a thickener for Italian-style soups like Minestrone, or add tomato paste to a serving to make pizza sauce. Here are some more delicious recipes that use spaghetti sauce:
Water Bath Canning Spaghetti Sauce
This particular recipe for canned spaghetti sauce hasn’t been “officially” tested for a water-bath canner. 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.
Pressure Canning Spaghetti Sauce
For a weighted-gauge pressure canner, you will want to process 20 minutes for pint jars and 25 minutes for quart jars. Process at 10 pounds for altitudes between 0-1,000 feet. Process at 15 pounds for altitudes above 1,000 feet. For more information on pressure canning spaghetti sauce, check out the National Center for Home Food Preservation here.
Frequently Asked Questions about Canned Spaghetti Sauce
You can add ground beef or ground Italian sausage 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.
Be really careful when adding or omitting ingredients to a canning recipe. You are usually fine adding spices but when it comes to adding fresh mushrooms, celery, parsley, thyme or meat it could throw off the acidity levels, thus making unsafe for canning.
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.
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.
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!
READ NEXT: Ravioli Sauce
More Delicious Pasta Recipes
- Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes
- One Pot Creamy Garlic Noodles
- Nick’s Authentic Italian Spaghetti
- Old Spaghetti Factory’s Mizithra Pasta
How to Make Canned Spaghetti Sauce
Homemade Canned Spaghetti Sauce
Video
Ingredients
- 25 pounds tomatoes
- 5 medium onions (about 7-8 cups chopped)
- 4 red bell peppers
- 1 green bell pepper
- 4 (6oz) cans tomato paste
- 1/4 cups 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.
For Water Bath Canning:
- Process for 40 minutes in a boiling-water canner for altitudes of 1,000 feet or less. For altitudes up to 3,000 feet, add 5 minutes; 6,000 feet, add 10 minutes; 8,000 feet, add 15 minutes; 10,000 feet, add 20 minutes.
For Pressure Canning:
- Using a weighted-gauge pressure canner, process 20 minutes for pint jars and 25 minutes for quart jars. Process at 10 lb for altitudes between 0-1,000 feet. Process at 15 lb for altitudes above 1,000 feet.
Notes
- This recipe makes 9-10 quart-sized jars
- 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, luckily 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, see our full guide.
- 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.
Hi Erica. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I am curious if you have tried it with red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice? Also, I would like to use pints instead of quarts so I assume only one tablespoon of juice at the bottom of each jar then? Thank you.
Yes, if you do pints, just do 1 Tbsp of lemon juice– as far as the substitution goes, you will probably want to stick with lemon juice just to make sure you have enough acidity. I’m not sure red wine vinegar has enough.
Hi Erica,
I just bought a electric Pressure Cooker and was wondering if I could make the Sauce in it? I have never used it before so kind of scared. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
A pressure cooker or pressure canner? A pressure cooker would be great to make the sauce in– it just needs to be in something where is will simmer down to the thickness you would like. The only issue I could see with a pressure cooker is that it is typically something you would cover– which might make it difficult for the excess steam/moisture to boil off. When you boil it on the stovetop you keep it uncovered so it can reduce down. I haven’t tried it in a pressure cooker though so it might be totally fine! I know this might not seem like a whole lot of help– let me know if you try it and how it turns out. I would definitely be interested to know!
Do I drain some of the liquid if I used frozen/thawed tomatoes? The water is almost covering the tomatos in the pan
I have never heard of using frozen tomatoes for canning before so I’m not exactly sure. There shouldn’t be much or any water– it should just be pure tomato juices. If it isn’t boiling down and thickening right, I would definitely drain the water off
I need some help. I had 25lbs of tomatos that I froze and have thawed out. There is a LOT of water it seems. The water level is almost as high in the pot as the tomatoes, should I drain some of it? All of it? Thank you!
Okay so I don’t can. It’s pretty intimidating for me, so I’m really just interested in this recipe for a small batch… for a one time dinner. Any idea how I might adjust for that?
I haven’t ever made this as a non-canning dish before. You could probably just adjust for how many pounds of tomatoes you are using and divide the ingredient amounts by that number. Hope this helps!
I just spent all day making this. I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but it’s not very good. I followed your recipe to the letter. So disappointed.
Hi Gloria– definitely feel free to modify to your tastes. Last time I doubled the herbs and added a little more salt and it was wonderful. Some people like more Italian flavor, some like it more minimal. I usually taste and add, taste and add until it’s perfect. What type of tomatoes did you use? That can affect the taste, too.
I used Romas. The sauce has the unmistakable taste of bbq sauce.
I see this is an older post, but in the hopes it can help other people thinking of trying this recipe I thought I would reply. I know that the brown sugar can settle on the bottom and caramelize if not stirred frequent enough….I would think that may be the bbq taste you got (sweeter) and even the tomato paste can settle at the bottom and burn giving off a different flavor. Just ideas I’m throwing out as I haven’t seen anyone else comment on that flavor and this is my second batch I’m making today!
Everyone who has eaten this spaghetti sauce says that it is the best they have ever tasted.
Thank you so much! We are big fans, too 🙂 I just made a batch last week.. Mmmmm
I gave a jar to my daughter & family last year. They ended up with 5 jars of my sauce because they loved it so! Thus I’m making 2 batches this year. 😉
I would really love to try this recipe! But It’s just my husband and I. Could I make it on a smaller scale? I’m not a canner so anything left would have to be frozen.
You can definitely make it on a smaller scale.. you could just use a recipe converter to make as much as you would like. This will also freeze well if you want to make extra.
I just made the last night, I woke up in the middle of the night realizing I forgot the garlic, do you think it is still safe? I can just add garlic when I use it??
Yes, that is totally fine.. you can just add it when re-heated. No biggie 🙂
Just tried canning with my daughter. We must have done something wrong. I do not have the right canning bath, so I put 4 pint jars in one of my big pans, boiled them covered for 45 minutes. But the lids didn’t pop. What can I do to save it?
Did they pop after they had cooled?
I have a high speed Vitamix blender that really pulverizes do I still need to take the skins off
It’s totally up to you. I use my blendtec sometimes but I always still remove the skins. Let me know if you decide to try it and how it turns out!
I always leave my unblemished skins on in tomato sauces and when jarring whole or crushed tomatoes. There are a lot of great vitamins and tomato skins. They may add a little bitterness that requires a little spice adjustments. The same is true with using tomato seeds. I use them. I used the Vitamix to blend the sautéed onion and peppers. Worked well. At the end of the cooking process I used the immersion blender, and was so very happy that I did. This recipe filled to the brim my16 quart stock pot. That amount of sauce to process in the Vitamix would’ve been very cumbersome endeavor. The immersion blender (a handheld stick that you insert in the pot to blend) allows you to manage the chunkiness or smoothness of your sauce. That is something that’s very difficult to do in any table top blender. And the whole pot is blended the same. Back to the tomato skins and seeds—the immersion blender broke down all of the skins and most of the seeds. I could’ve ran the immersion blender longer to break down all of the seeds but I really liked the consistency of the sauce that I had. Two thumbs up! 👍😍👍
1/4 cup of salt-I hope I am assuming right by using canning salt?
I just used Kosher salt. Taste it though because when I made it today I used quite a bit more salt. Make it to your personal taste in saltiness 🙂
Hi ladies:) I am in the middle of many roma tomatoes. I have put them through the food strainer because I have many grand children I watch so I have to work in shifts. I strain all my tomatoes & the next day I make my sauce & can. I need your help in figuring out how many gallons of juice I would use for this recipe? I sure hope you can help this grandma! Thanks for your time.
Chris
I actually just canned today! It was about 2-ish gallons of tomato juice/pulp for one batch
Thanks!
I was wondering, can you use a food mill instead of peeling and coring all the tomatoes. My grandma and mom aways used this as it cuts out all that extra time. Or is there a reason you cook it that way?
Yes, that would probably work– You just want to make sure you are still getting a lot of the meat of the tomato (pulp).
Just made a batch of this spaghetti sauce, it is absolutely delicious!!!! Thank you for sharing your recipe!!! I will NEVER, again buy spaghetti sauce in a store, there is no comparison, Thanks again!!!
Thank you so much, I’m so glad you liked it!
I want some sauce
25 pounds of tomatoes equals what size basket of tomatoes? Will I be able to find Roma tomatoes in quantity as I live in New England?
You can use any kind of tomatoes. We used Early Girl and Park’s Whopper tomatoes last time and it was wonderful. It’s tough to estimate basket sizes… I would say about a 2/3 full 5-gallon bucket is about 25 Lbs.
What preasure and for how long in a preasure cooker canner for the sauce we live in Florida
I haven’t pressure-canned this recipe before but here is a great resource I found online for you.. it has everything you asked: http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_03/spaghetti_sauce.html Hope this helps!
Another great way to skin your tomatoes is to put them whole in the freezer. When they are thawing out the skins slip right off. I found this out because I added tomatoes to the bag in the freezer as they ripened on the tomato plant. Was able to skip the boil/cold bath step completely!
I also buy onions and bell peppers [esp. the red ones!] when they are on sale, chop them up and freeze in bags of 1 cup each for future recipes.
Great ideas! Thank you so much for sharing your tips!
I like using a victoria strainer, it takes the skin and most of the seeds out and gives me the tomato juice and pulp. it is also quick and easy, and the kids love helping turn the handle. I can run the skins through twice to get a little thicker pulp.
I use 2 #10 cans of tomato sauce and 2 #10 cans of diced tomatoes and it turns out great every time
Thanks Steve
Thank you for the tips!
Thanks! I have one #10 can of tomato sauce… I see I’ll have to get more. I know I can 1/4 the recipe but I’m canning the sauce and I might as well can four #10 cans rather than one #10 can.
How much is is #10 cans? Not familiar with that size (not an experienced cook!)
Thanks!
A #10 can is the large food service size – some stores have them in the “institutional” foods section.
They hold about 12 3/4 cups of product, usually much cheaper and easier than opening lots of smaller cans.
Have you done this with cans of diced tomatoes? Is it basically the same? We are well past canning season in WI.
We haven’t done it with diced tomatoes– It would probably work just fine if you could figure out the right tomato to diced tomato ratios!
Erica – this recipe looks great. I don’t have a pot large enough for all the tomatoes. Would a Nesco work? If so, what temp would you set it to?
We have never used a Nesco roaster for cooking down tomatoes before. If you use it for simmering a lot, you may be fine, I just do’t know what to recommend as far as a temp goes. Sorry I wasn’t much help with this one!
It says cook time is 1 hour, but then it says to simmer for 4 to 5 hours?
You want to reduce it for as long as you can… 1 hour is the minimum. 4-5 hours is suggested. Hope this helps!