This post may contain affiliate links. See our disclosure policy.
This 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!
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.
- Seasonings – Salt, garlic, oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, and bay leaves is all you need to season this delicious sauce.
- 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
Water bath canning tomatoes is the most common way to can tomatoes, but it must be done the right way. Tomatoes are in the “gray area” of having enough acidity, so you need to add a bit of lemon juice or citric acid to ensure it reaches the correct acidity for canning. You can learn all about water bath canning in my water bath canning guide. If you want to learn about the basics of canning and other ways to can, check out my Canning 101 post as well. Between these two posts, you will learn how to be a water bath canning pro in no time!
How to Use a Pressure Canner
For a weighted-gauge pressure canner, you will want to process 20 minutes for pint jars and 25 minutes for quart jars. I like to use the Presto 16-Quart Pressure Canner, which is great for canning spaghetti sauce, homemade jams, and more. You can get it for $78 at Walmart to start canning your own sauces.
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.
Where to Buy Canning Jars
We like to use 1-quart canning jars from Ball. They’re the BEST for canning spaghetti sauce. You can get 12 of them at Walmart for around $16, which makes it a little over $1 a jar and one of the more affordable ways to start canning. We also like to use them as drinking glasses, food storage, flower vases, and more, so you’ll get a ton of use out of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do not, I repeat, do NOT skip this step. Stick a reminder note on your jars or tie a ribbon on your finger so you don’t forget. You absolutely can not safely can tomatoes without bringing up the acidity first. If you forget to add the lemon juice you will need to open the jars, add the juice, replace with new lids, and reprocess.
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!
Still Have a Question about Canning Spaghetti Sauce?
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. We also answer a lot of canning questions that have been asked in the comment section so if you have any questions, read below and I am sure you will find the answer you are looking for! Still can’t find an answer? Leave a comment and we will try to answer it as quickly as possible. With the sheer volume of comments we get, it may take a few days for us to respond but we try to get to every question!
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.
This sauce recipe is soooo good and especially delicious! I made a batch yesterday to can. We decided to have spaghetti, meatballs and your sauce for dinner last night. Wowwie! That sauce is much better than any sauce I’ve ever eaten even in a true Italian restaurant! Kudos to you! It has the best little zip in it which comes from the red peppers. Not too much, not too little…….and as the one bear said, “Just right”! I have about 9 quarts to process out of that batch. I’m planning to go get another box of tomatoes at the fruit stand and make another batch. This is the end of me buying canned sauce at the grocery store and then being unhappy that I could not season it to my liking. This is p e r f e c t. And people out there…..DO NOT CHANGE HER RECIPE ONE TINY BIT!
I’ve made this exact recipe 5 times and it is seriously AMAZING! It tastes just like PREGO. Thank you!! Has anyone tried this recipe in a roaster pan? If so, I’d love to have instructions on how to cook it that way.
Could thesauce be cooked in a crock pot rather than on the stove?
We haven’t tested that method for safety so I can’t recommend it.
Hello, I will be making this recipe next week and I want to use 1/2 quart jars. I was wondering if the lemon juice would be halved and would the processing time change?
Thank you.
We have only tested this recipe for safety in quart jars, so I can’t recommend processing times for other sizes.
Can I chop / prepare vegetables today, store in fridge, and cook and can tomorrow??
That should work!
I added 1/4 cup balsamic vinager and 1/4 cup better than bouillon!(beef)! Also before adding any soya sauce or vinager, or any extra liquids and spices, heat up, put fine strainer into the liquid, and scoop off the water! This reduced the cooking time significantly!
Is the bouillon mixed with water or used as the way it is
Is the better then bouillon as it comes from jar or mixed with water
When I chopped up 5 large onions, I did not get 7-8 cups like the recipe says. When I chopped them up with the red and green peppers, then I got about 7 cups all together. Is your recipe calling for 7 cups of just the onions? In comparing to the NCHFP charts, they call for 1 cup of onion and they do not recommend increasing the onion and peppers for canning safety and processing times. Is your recipe approved by NCHFP? I followed your recipe but added more cans of tomato paste and some tomato/chicken bullion to our liking. I thought that the final product was absolutely delicious!!! The soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce and the brown sugar did add a wonderful flavor! Thank you!
Our recipe has not been officially tested, but we follow the USDA guidelines for safe canning. Yes, it should be approximately 7 cups of chopped onion, but the size of the chop can affect the measurements a bit.
Do you remove tomato seeds?
I followed this recipe and it is fantastic! We have been taste testing on toasted bread and mozzarella cheese. Can’t wait for family dinners this fall! My plan is to make homemade noodles to take it over the top!
Best spaghetti sauce I’ve ever had, some think it is spicy. But I think it’s perfect, got just enough spice and lots of flavor!
Can you add cheese at the end right before canning?
We can only endorse the recipe as written for canning purposes. Omissions, substitutions, or additions can be safely made if you plan to freeze the sauce instead of canning.
This is the only sauce I have made for the last several years. It is easy to put together and delicious! Give it a try. You will not be disappointed.
AMAZING!! it was so easy to make and I haven’t finished the processing time yet – but I sampled and I can’t wait for all the flavors to be infused!!! Thank you soo much for sharing!!!
So I’m finishing up this recipe now and I ended with 12 quarts? Did I maybe have to many tomato’s? Or did I not reduce enough? It was on the stove for close to 5 hours. I did weigh my tomatoes also.
The quart amount is approximate depending on how high you fill each jar and a few other factors. If the sauce seems like its the right consistency you should be fine!
Delish!
Made this recipe with garden grown ingredients. Followed it very carefully because I am bath processing now. I did not have pots big enough to make in one batch, so I divided it between two pots, also everyone in the family tried some before canning and said it was very sweet. I agreed, it is a very sweet spaghetti sauce recipe.
All three recipes recipe sizes say 9-10 quarts, whether it’s 25 lbs of tomatoes or 75 lbs.
Any direction on amount of finished product?
The amount will track with the scale. So 20 qts for 2x and 30 qts for 3x. That number doesn’t get counted because its a note not an exact amount. I hope this helps.
Simply times it by 3.
If 25# produces 9-10 quarts, then 75# should then produce approximately 27 – 30 quarts.
Do you use 2 tablespoons lemon juice per EACH quart jar?
Yes!
When you reference 25 pounds of tomatoes in your recipe, I assume that means 25 pounds of tomatoes straight off the vine?..Not 25 pounds of actual tomato purée.
In order to keep up with my tomatoes this year, I have already puréed them and placed them in the freezer. Now I’m trying to figure out how to accordingly use your recipe?
Thoughts or Suggestions?
Yes, 25 pounds of whole, fresh tomatoes. 1 pound of fresh tomatoes typically yields 3 cups of puree. I hope this helps!
Hello, I tried this recipe today and I wasn’t planning on canning, just freezing. I did not add the brown sugar because I don’t enjoy sweet spaghetti sauce. I still cooked for close to 5 hours and the end result was WAY too salty. When I initially started cooking it (and had all the ingredients added), it was not this salty. But the end product was not awesome at all (and I ended up with half as much as I started with because it cooled down too much). I’m wondering if cooking it for that long decreased the “water” in the recipe, but obviously doesn’t get rid of the salt and maybe that’s why it was too salty. It was barely edible. Do you know why this could be or how I can adjust it?
The brown sugar doesn’t make the sauce overly sweet and it balances out the salt in the sauce. Adding the brown sugar as listed in the recipe would have helped with the saltiness.
I strongly suspect when you eliminated the brown sugar you messed up the recipe. I was surprised the recipe asked for the brown sugar rather than white but I have a chef husband who insists brown sugar is much nicer in recipes then white. That’s probably why you detected too much salt. Mine was perfect!
This is a great recipe that’s easy to can with a water bath. I’ve made this 2 years in a row, and I got 8ts last year, but only 7 this year.
I really love cooking it nice and thick, then it can be thinned with pasta water. After one year on the shelf, it still has vibrant colour and taste. Awesome, thank you!
How can I preserve it . I don’t have pressure guage and new in this field .