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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!
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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 is my second year using your recipe and my garden tomatoes. It’s very delicious and versatile. I freeze the tomatoes, I don’t remove the skin because after the processor and the hours of simmering… they disappear. I use this for pizza sauce (a little tweaking), chicken Parmigian, spaghetti, marinara dipping sauce. This is just the base so when I cook with it I add lots of goodies depending the purpose.
So glad you’ve loved it and found so many ways to use it!
Love this sauce, first time using this recipe, definitely a keeper!!
Sorry it wouldn’t let me click on the stars so I am giving you 10 stars!
Thank you!
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So, funny story….. my family owns tomato canneries and has for over 100 years. Our products are the best!
Much to my mom’s dismay, I still love going to the trouble of canning my own spaghetti sauce and salsa every year because it makes me feel happy. I guess it’s in the blood!
This is the best recipe I’ve tried and my husband and I just canned it for the second year in a row. Great job!
Wow, what a compliment!! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave this comment. You made my day! Especially coming from someone whose family has been in the tomato canning business for over a century! You aren’t kidding that it’s in your blood haha I love this so much. Thanks again for the nice comment and I hope you continue coming back year after year for the recipe!
Instead of vinegar in bottom of jars can you use salt?
No, it must be lemon juice to bring up the acidity, or you can also use citric acid. Salt won’t raise the acidity and it will also alter the taste. That would be a lot of salt for a quart jar of spaghetti sauce.
If I am using citric acid instead of lemon juice, how much per qt and per pint? Can’t wait to try your recipe!
you only need 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per jar. Hope this helps!
How much citric acid would you use instead of lemon juice (per qt jar)?
you only need 1/2 teaspoon of citric acid per jar. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Thank you!
Made your sauce today and it delicious! Halved the recipe and it came out perfect…5 pts.
Erica this recipe oh my God is the absolute best spaghetti recipe ever.Thank you so much, my friends and family now reconize me as a cook Lol..It’s amazing but next time I would like to add hamburger
Browning it of course a little, but how much hamburger would you add to this recipe?
Dale
Dale – This makes me so happy! I am so glad that you (and your family) have enjoyed this recipe. As far as adding ground beef, you will want to wait until preparing your meal before adding meat to the sauce. If you want to add ground beef while canning, it will need to be pressure canned and that’s a different process for safe canning. I don’t love pressure canning so for me, I will typicallyy brown 1-1.5 pounds of ground beef and then I will add the canned spaghetti sauce and let it simmer for a good 10-15 minutes before serving with spaghetti. I hope this helps!
If I run 25 lbs of tomatoes through a strainer to remove core and seeds and have 18 lbs of juice is that ok or should I have 25 lbs of juice? Thanks
You definitely want it to be more on the pulpy side, all juice won’t turn out quite right. You want to still have the meaty parts of the tomatoes. How fine of a strainer do you have?
Erica, thanks so much for this wonderful tasting recipe and great instructions!
I canned this sauce last September (2023), made a lasagna for our Christmas family gathering along with lasagna noodles, ground beef, uncased mild Italian sausage, cottage & mozzarella & Parmesan cheese.
At our 4th of July gathering half a year later, relatives were still raving about “the best lasagna I ever tasted.” It will go with Turkey this Thanksgiving!
Last year’s batch was great, but I seeded all the tomatoes – almost all my backyard garden, slicer tomatoes, and after about 2.5 hrs of simmering I canned it, but there was less sauce than expected and it worked out be too thick. I had to add 8 oz. tomato sauce to each pint to get the great tasting, chunky sauce to stick to pasta.
This year, I made the recipe with 19 lbs of Roma Tomatoes, did not seed them after coring/scalding/peeling, cut them in half longways and and chopped them with a 1/2″ square, 3″ chopper blade insert – pouring all the pieces and liquid into the pot. I scaled everything else a little on the high side (4 cans of tomato paste, a huge green bell pepper, etc.) and it fit to within 1/4″ of the top of my 10 quart pot.
I considered using your immersion blender note to smooth the tomatoes (onions and peppers food processed fine, garlic pressed fine) but I like chunky tomato salsa and the pot wasn’t so thick like last year – I can always immersion-blend it when I use it if necessary.
After 90 minutes, the simmering had brought the pot to about 1″ from the top of the wide pot (almost 20% evaporated).
I decided to can in a water bath at that point and (2 tbsp lemon juice/qt., 1 tbsp/pt) I was able to can 3 quarts and 8 pints. There were 2 heaping tbsp left over and I ate them and loved the taste like last year!
Your 8-10 quarts (16-20 pints) for 25 lb should be 19/25 x (16 to 20) = 12 to 15 pints.
My 3×2 + 8 = 14 pints so I’m in the right ballpark.
Cant wait to see if I got the right thickness this time – It looked and felt like I did!
Oh wow, thank you so much for this comment! I am so glad you have enjoyed the spaghetti sauce so much. The lasagna sounds amazing! I am getting ready to can tomatoes and spaghetti sauce for this year as well so this adjustment is good to know. I will re-visit those amounts when I am canning my own tomatoes, just to double check. Thanks again for taking the time to leave such a great comment 🙂
I made this spaghetti sauce for the first time last year and everyone loved it! I think it gave about 12-13 big jars! Sooo good! Fam fave
I was wondering if there was a faster way to cook this instead of the 4 hours? Maybe in the instant pot?
I have lots of fresh basil. Can I use it in this recipe?
We can only endorse the safety of this canning recipe exactly as written. If you plan to make substitutions you can ensure safety by freezing the sauce instead of canning.
How long do you waterbath for pints ?
For pints, just take 5 minutes off the processing time!
How would I make this chunky tomatoes? I’m making it tomorrow 😁
You don’t have to use the immersion blender to blend it up. You can just keep dice the tomatoes and continue with the recipe without blending. You can also reserve 1/3 of the tomatoes and add them after blending the rest, then you will get more of a chunky sauce. Hope this helps!
Has anyone tried adding mushrooms to this – tips and input appreciated 🙂
Your recipe calls for 4 red peppers and one green pepper. You mention processing the green pepper in the food processor with the onions, are you also talking about processing the red peppers too, because they are never mentioned. Also, could I use just green peppers, or would that change the acidity?
Yes, you process the red and green peppers together. We can only endorse the safety of this recipe exactly as written.
Can I use vinegar instead of lemon juice?
We can only endorse this recipe for safety exactly as written.
Erica, any issues with leaving skins on cherry tomatoes that I plan on mixing in with romas and a few other varieties? I’ve been making roasted salsa with cherry tomatoes, skins on. Wanting to knock out a couple batches today and try your recipe!
I don’t think that leaving the skins on would change the acidity for canning, but it might be something you want to research just to be sure! We always remove the skins.
what is the purpose of the lemon juice at the bottom of the jars before you add the sauce?
It is to add acid to the sauce to make sure it has the proper pH for canning safety!
Made over 40 quarts this past weekend, amazing recipe.
Wow 40 quarts! That’s impressive! Now you can enjoy your tomatoes until next year!
What type of tomatoes do you use? Romas? Excited to try your recipe but not sure what type of tomatoes to use? Have you ever mixed in different types of tomatoes like cherry tomatoes? Thank you 🙂
You can use any garden variety or Romas. Romas are wonderful and meaty so they are a great variety to use. And yes, we have mixed cherry tomatoes before and it definitely adds to the flavor!
About how cups of chopped tomatoes? Thanks!
Typically 2 cups of chopped tomatoes = 1 pound of fresh tomatoes. Hope this helps!