Spaghetti Sauce for Canning (Use Fresh or Frozen Tomatoes)
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My husband came in from outside the first time I was canning spaghetti sauce, smiled and said the house smelled like an Italian restaurant – a good Italian restaurant. I had to agree.
This sauce takes a while to cook, but the end result is delicious! It’s great for pasta sauce, pizza or topping spaghetti squash. Gluten free and meatless (you can add meat just before serving if you like).
We take you through the recipe step by step with photos, plus share tips for working with frozen tomatoes. A good homemade spaghetti sauce recipe for canning is a must in our house, because many store bought spaghetti sauces use ingredients like genetically modified high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil – not things we normally eat.
I start a batch in the morning, and slow cook it while I’m working on other things in the kitchen, like prepping the rest of the ingredients and canning equipment. Paste tomatoes yield a thicker sauce with less cooking, but you can use any tomatoes that you have available.
Spaghetti Sauce Recipe for Canning with Fresh Tomatoes – Step By Step Instructions
(Scroll down to bottom of post for print friendly version of recipe.)
My favorite canning spaghetti sauce recipe is adapted from The Encyclopedia of Country Living by Carla Emery. This recipe is very close to the “Spaghetti sauce without Meat” recipe listed on the National Center for Home Food Preservation website, so you know it’s a safe canning recipe.
Salt and pepper can be adjusted to taste, or substitute Italian seasoning for the oregano. It’s okay to substitute an equal amount of fresh basil for some of the celery, green peppers or mushrooms.
You can also cut this spaghetti sauce recipe in half or to a fourth. Just keep the processing time the same, or freeze the marinara sauce in freezer bags or freezer safe containers instead of canning.
When we’re ready to serve the spaghetti sauce, we open a jar and heat it up, or brown some ground beef or Italian sausage and add the sauce to the skillet.
Ingredients
- 30 pounds tomatoes
- 1/4 cup butter or olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 5 minced garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 cup chopped celery or green pepper
- 1 pound sliced mushrooms (optional)
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 2 tablespoons oregano flakes
- 1/4 cup minced parsley
- 1/4 cup brown sugar or unrefined cane sugar
Directions
Wash 30 pounds of tomatoes. Remove cores and quarter tomatoes.
Cook 20 minutes, uncovered, in large pan or pans to soften tomatoes. I cook mine at medium high heat in an assortment of heavy bottom stainless steel pots. I have also used a Nesco roaster and a slow cooker.
Thick bottom pans prevent accidental scorching, frequent stirring is recommended. Don’t use aluminum – it will react with the acid in the tomatoes. When I cook on the stove top, I start with four pans and cook the sauce down to one 8 quart stockpot.
Put tomatoes through a food strainer or food mill. I have a Back to Basics food strainer that works beautifully. (The Back to Basics strainer isn’t available anymore, but this Norpro strainer is similar.) We feed the seeds and skins to the chickens, or you can put them in the compost.
Years ago I used a chinois strainer. I still use it for small batches, but for large batches the food strainer can’t be beat. It’s so much faster! KitchenAid also makes a strainer attachment for their mixers.
Cook down the strained tomatoes to reduce volume and make a thicker sauce. We start with four pots and end up with one. This is the base of your spaghetti sauce.
While the tomato sauce is cooking, you can do the rest of the prep work, like chopping the rest of your veggies, filling the canner, and getting the lids and jars ready.
My pressure canner uses three quarts of water, to which I add one tablespoon of white vinegar to reduce hard water build up on the jars. I wash my jars in the dishwasher and keep them hot until I’m ready to fill.
I keep my lids in hot water in a one quart saucepan (do not boil lids), and use kitchen tongs for lifting them out of the water. The latest generation of canning lids from Ball do not require preheating, but I have a stock of lids that I am still working through.
To Finish the Sauce
Sauté in 1/4 cup butter or olive oil until tender: onions, garlic, celery or green pepper, and mushrooms. Combine sautéed vegetables and strained tomatoes. Add salt, black pepper, oregano, parsley and sugar.
Bring to a boil. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Reduce heat to simmer, keep hot while waiting to process.
Canning the Spaghetti Sauce
Fill jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids. Process in a pressure canner 20 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts.
If using a weighted-gauge canner, set at 10 pounds pressure at 0-1,000 feet above sea level; set at 15 pounds pressure at higher altitudes.
If using a dial-gauge canner; set at:
- 11 pounds pressure at 0-2000 feet above sea level
- 12 pounds at 2,001-4,000 feet
- 13 pounds at 4,001-6,000 feet
- 14 pounds at 6.001-8,000 feet
- 15 pounds above 8,000 feet
Allow canner to cool and release pressure. Remove jars and set on towel on counter. Let rest until cool, or overnight.
Remove rings, wipe any spills. Date and label and store in a cool, dry location, out of direct sunlight. Best used within 1-2 years.
Yields around eight pints of home canned spaghetti sauce.
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What About Canning Spaghetti Sauce Without a Pressure Canner?
You need to use a pressure canner for canning this spaghetti sauce recipe, since it contains low acid ingredients like oil and onions. Freezing spaghetti sauce is a good option if you don’t have a pressure canner.
To use a water bath canner, the food you’re canning must have a pH of 4.6 or lower.
The homemade spaghetti sauce recipes with lemon juice added to make them safe for water bath canning taste like lemons to me, not tomatoes. I’ve tried them, but I can’t recommend them.
Citric acid lowers acidity without changing the flavor of the sauce, but there’s still the issue of the oil. Use the freezer instead.
See “How to Can Food at Home” for a review of safety basics.
How long does home canned spaghetti sauce last?
The flavor and nutrient levels in your home canned spaghetti sauce are best when used within one to two years. If you store the sauce in the freezer, try to use it within six months.
We’ve used a few home canned items at five years of age, but the flavor is not as good.
Never use a canned product with a broken seal, bulging lid or other obvious signs of damage or spoilage.
How do you thicken homemade spaghetti sauce for canning?
Low, slow cooking is my default option to thicken the sauce and concentrate the flavor of the tomatoes.
Other options include:
- Weigh and freeze the tomatoes, and then allow them to thaw in a colander to remove excess liquid before proceeding with the recipe.
- Can the sauce when it is somewhat thin, and then add tomato powder or dehydrated tomato puree to thicken when you heat the sauce for serving. I use this option when I make sauce out of cherry tomatoes or other very juicy tomatoes instead of paste tomatoes.
Some people grind up the skins and seeds to thicken the sauce. For our tastes, this made the sauce so bitter that we couldn’t eat it. Also, the skin and seeds of the tomatoes are where most of the lectins are.
Why Remove the Seeds and Skin?
Lectins are a type of protein that can bind to carbohydrates, and act as part of the plant’s self defense mechanism. They are difficult to digest, and may contribute to leaky gut syndrome. They may also have a negative effect on the immune system in sensitive individuals.
By removing the skin and seeds, we remove the majority of the lectins, making the tomato sauce easier to digest.
If You Don’t Have Enough Ripe Tomatoes from One Picking
If you don’t have enough ripe tomatoes at one time for canning spaghetti sauce, you can store tomatoes that are very ripe or damaged into the freezer, until you have enough for the recipe.
Our ripe, undamaged tomatoes will easily keep for a week or more at room temperature. Cracked or otherwise damaged tomatoes will only last a day or two before spoiling and/or attracting fruit flies. They should be processed in some manner within 24 hours, if possible.
I usually core the tomatoes and half or quarter them (depending on the size) before freezing. Then, when I am planning on canning spaghetti sauce the next day, I place them in the sink overnight to thaw. In the morning, you can pour off some of the clear juice if you like so that the cook down quicker. Weigh them out, dump them into your stockpot, and start cooking.
If you have fruit that’s refusing to ripen, check out “4 Reasons your Tomatoes Aren’t Ripening – And What You can Do About it“.
If you have tomato blossoms, but no fruit, we have help for that, too.
PrintCanned Spaghetti Sauce Recipe – Fresh or Frozen Tomatoes
Never buy spaghetti sauce from the store again.This homemade canning spaghetti sauce recipe is slow cooked and loaded with flavor. May also be used fresh or frozen if you don’t have a pressure canner.
- Prep Time: 5 hours
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 8 pints 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Canning
- Cuisine: American-Italian
Ingredients
- 30 pounds tomatoes
- 1/4 cup butter or olive oil
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 5 minced garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons salt
- 1 cup chopped celery or green pepper
- 1 pound sliced mushrooms (optional)
- 2 teaspoons black pepper
- 2 tablespoons dried oregano flakes
- 1/4 cup minced parsley
- 1/4 cup brown sugar or unrefined cane sugar
Instructions
- Wash 30 pounds of tomatoes. Remove cores and quarter tomatoes. Boil 20 minutes, uncovered, in large pan (or pans).
- Put through food strainer or food mill. Cook down tomatoes to reduce volume and make a thicker sauce. Reduce volume by 1/2 to 2/3rds.
- While the sauce is cooking, finish the remaining prep work, like chopping your veggies and getting the lids and jars ready. Prepare pressure canner according to manufacturer’s instructions.
To Finish the Sauce
- Saute in 1/4 cup butter or olive oil until tender: onions, garlic, celery or green pepper, and mushrooms.
- Combine sauteed vegetables and tomatoes.
- Add salt, black pepper, oregano, parsley and sugar.
- Bring to a boil. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Reduce heat to simmer, keep hot while waiting to process.
- Fill jars, leaving 1 inch headspace. Adjust lids.
- Process in a pressure canner 20 minutes for pints, 25 minutes for quarts. If using a weighted-gauge canner, set at 10 pounds pressure at 0-1,000 feet above sea level; set at 15 pounds pressure at higher altitudes. If using a dial-gauge canner; set at 11 pounds pressure at 0-2000 feet above sea level; 12 pounds at 2,001-4,000 feet; 13 pounds at 4,001-6,000 feet; 14 pounds at 6.001-8,000 feet; or 15 pounds above 8,000 feet.
- Allow canner to cool and release pressure. Remove jars and set on towel on counter. Let rest until cool, or overnight. Remove rings, wipe any spills. Date and label and store in a cool, dry location, out of direct sunlight. Best used within 1-2 years.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
You may also enjoy:
- Home Canned Salsa Recipe – Plus 10 Tips for Canning Salsa Safely
- 2 Homemade Ketchup Recipes
- Home Canned Tomato Soup
- How to Can Tomatoes
- Pickled Cherry Tomatoes for Canning, Plus More Cherry Tomato Ideas
This article is written by Laurie Neverman. Laurie grew up in the kitchen, learning baking and home cooking from her momma. At age 15, she and her mom and two sisters created Irene’s Custom Cakes & Catering. This was her summer job through most of high school and college.
Originally published in 2009, last updated in 2024.
Way too much salt
There’s only 2 tablespoons of salt for 30 pounds of tomatoes, so the concentration of salt is pretty low. It can be left out if you prefer, but you should know that salt is not the demon that it’s been made out to be in recent years. See “12 Reasons Why Salt is GOOD for you!” for more information.
Salt is poison to me amd many others.
While I understand that some individuals may seek to limit their salt intake for a variety of reasons, calling salt “poison” is inaccurate.
In the article “Salt is Essential to Life” from the University of Hawaii, they note:
AMEN!
I ant print it-sad
The print page should open in a new tab when you hit the print button. Otherwise you can always copy and paste the recipe into a word processing program.
Would love to try this recipe but wonder if you have any that I can use Water bath canned?
I don’t have one on the site. To safely water bath can tomatoes, you need to add lemon juice, which changes the flavor, or citric acid, which has less impact on flavor. You can safely water bath can plain tomato sauce by adding 1 tablespoon lemon juice per pint (2 tablespoons per quart). Process pints 35 minutes and quarts 40 minutes in a water bath canner.
I have only canned using a water bath. Do I understand correctly that I can use your recipe just add 1 Tbsp lemon juice to pint prior to filling and processing? Any idea if canning jars can be used in Instant Pot? I understand that to be a pressure cooker. Thanks, Rose.
An Instant Pot is a pressure cooker, not a pressure canner, and is not safe to use for canning.
I do not recommend water bath canning this sauce, even with added lemon juice.
Thank you!
You’re welcome.
HI, New at canning and diabetic, eat Low Carb HIgh Fat. Can I leave out the sugar or sub a natural sweetner like stevia?
As long as you pressure can the finished sauce, it should be okay to omit the sugar.
How long does the spaghetti sauce stay good for?
At least 2-3 years. I’d try to use it up before then.
how long does this last in the fridge?
We’ve kept jars in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks with no issues. It’ll grow mold if you try to store it too long without processing, so spoilage should be obvious.
Good morning,
I stumbled across your tomato sauce recipe and am making a batch now. I had a bushel of Roma tomato’s and the end weight is around 38 lbs. I eliminated the mushrooms and had several tablespoons over the 1 cup of both green peppers and onions not much though. I am wondering if you have heard of or have tried using canned tomato paste to thicken your sauce. Also I would like to add dried basil would that alter the recipe?
Dried basil should be fine, as should a small amount of tomato paste or powder. Just don’t get the consistency too thick, or that will impair heat transfer and could lead to unsafe canning conditions.
Hi Laurie, I’m new to canning and I’d love to try this recipe. Can I use fresh oregano instead of dried? I have more oregano in my garden this year than I know what to do with. ????
With water bath canning, it’s not safe to substitute fresh herbs for dry, but since this is pressure canned it should be okay. I’d use double the amount of fresh oregano.
How many cups of puree should I get? It seems that starting with lbs there could be some variation in the ratios,
I’ve never measured exactly, but I typically end up with 8-10 pints of finished sauce.
I have already finished my canning this year, but for future canning… if you leave out the mushrooms, is it safe to increase the other non-acidic ingredients (onion, celery, bell pepper)? It seems logical to me, but haven’t found any guidelines to confirm. And if so, would the safe amount of increase (onions, celery, bell peppers) be 1 lb. total? I don’t see any good reason to add the mushrooms to the sauce before canning, since the finished product will be used in a variety of ways, and I can always add mushrooms before serving, if desired.
Yes, as long as you stay within approximately the same volume/weight, the pressure canning process should allow some wiggle room.
Do you have a brand or type of pressure canner you recommend? We did hot water bath canning last year but have 16 tomato plants and want to try doing sauce this year.
I have two Presto units, a Presto 01781 23-Quart Pressure Canner and Cooker that I use for larger jobs. I take the rack from my other unit, and can use it between pint jars to stack two layers high. I also picked up a Presto 01745 16-Quart pressure Canner and Cooker a few years ago, because the smaller vessel cycles a little faster with small batches. Both work well and get the job done.
My dream canner would be the All American 921 21-1/2-Quart Pressure Cooker/Canner, which has a metal on metal seal (no rubber gasket), and is made to last a lifetime – possibly several lifetimes.
Hi there Laurie,
I’m not sure if I’ve shared this with you before but I apologize if I have.
So, one year I had a HUGE crop of ‘maters and no time to prep and can them. So I rinsed them, and froze them whole. Then that winter I had to figure out what I was going to do with all these frozen tomatoes. I had wanted fire roasted tomatoes like the ones from Muir Glen. But grilling tomatoes is a thankless and wasteful job. Luckily, I discovered that if you take the frozen whole tomatoes out of the freezer and set them on the counter for 45 minutes, they are then barely soft enough to cut in half. Take the frozen halves and lay them face up on a cooling rack set over a sheet pan and put in a 350 degree oven for one hour. The only caution I would share is all the water will be in the sheet pan so use extreme caution pulling them out of the oven. (I cool the water and give to my plants or pour over my dogs food) So now I have roasted halves of tomatoes. I let them cool a bit and then gingerly pick them up by the underside and using clean hands of course, squeeze the meat out into a dish and what’s left is either the skin (on the bottom half of the tomato) or the skin and stem (on the top half). I then give the skins and stems to my chickens who are VERY happy to get this bounty.
What I have is a lovely roasted tomato puree that needs only a bit of salt and herbs to make marinara sauce. No need for paste or hours of cooking. You should try it sometime. It really is a great way to make marinara sauce. And I just water bath canned them. I would love to hear what you think about this method as I literally stumbled upon it trying to figure out how to deal with bags of frozen whole tomatoes one year. I have never seen anyone else do this so….
Anyway, Thanks again,
Pam
I don’t think you shared this before, or if you did, I can’t recall. I’d probably freeze, dry or freeze dry the resulting sauce, because tomatoes can be right on the edge of the current guidelines for safe water bath canning in terms of pH. The current recommendations called for added lemon or citric acid to canned tomato juice, tomatoes and sauces, which affects the flavor quite a bit (to me). if you did some pH testing and made sure it was below 4.6, then you’d know for sure you were out of botulism land.
It sounds tasty.
My family brings the processed tomatoes to a boil and then places them in sterilized jars. The lids are simultaneously boiling in water and are pulled out one by one and placed on the jars, topped off with a ring. The heated lids form the seal then with the heat from the tomatoes. We only put the jars in water if the tomatoes were not very hot.
Lots of families process tomatoes the same way. My mom did that years ago. Unfortunately, with the more deadly microbes we have now, a better understanding of food science, and the higher pH of many modern tomato varieties, it is no longer recommended for safety reasons.
If I added 2 T. bottled lemon juice to each jar could I process them in a water bath?
I wouldn’t recommend it, but if you did it and tested the pH and it was below 4.6, it should be safe. That much lemon would really make the taste less pleasant. The sauce can also be frozen if you don’t have a pressure canner.
Can you can sauce that has Parmesan cheese (grated Kraft in a shaker canister) in it?
Canning cheese products is not recommended.
I did the same thing. I used the traditional canning recipe and added Parmesean (because I normally add Parmesean, I did it without even checking the recipe). Now, I’m wondering what to do with all of this sauce. I had already canned 6 quarts before it occurred to me. Can I freeze the sauce with Parmesean?
Yes, freezing should work just fine.
Hey Laurie, I love the recipe, but have a question: Is there a reason that you cook the tomatoes down for the 20 mins before straining out the skins and seeds? Why not just chop them and put them through the strainer before beginning the cooking process? Just wondering if there was a specific reason?
I cook them before straining to soften the flesh of the tomato so that you get maximum juice/pulp extraction.
Thanks for your quick response. It’s a wonderful recipe that we will enjoy all year!
You’re welcome. I tried out a new tomato soup recipe last week that I’ll have live on the site this week.
Hello thanks so much for the recipe. Planning on making this tonight but had a couple questions. I didn’t read anything about removing the skins. Should I leave them on? Also can I process themm in a magic bullet and just leave the seeds in my sauce? Thanks.
The seeds are removed with the food strainer (“Put through large food mill or sieve.” ) – fourth photo on page.
There are websites out there that will recommend pureeing seeds and skins in a high powered blender, but I’m not one of them. I tried it – once. The result was an incredibly bitter, basically inedible sauce. It was foul. Skins alone might not be quite as bad, but if you’re straining seeds you might as well strain skins, too.
Since this is pressure canned, the ratio of veggies will not affect safe acidity levels; that is only an issue with water bath canning. I am hoping to have a good crop of tomatoes this year and will try this recipe. I’m still on the look out for a great tasting speghetti sauce recipe. thanks.
Changing the amount of vegetables with pressure canning can still be an issue, because it can change processing time.
We add a lot more onions and and garlic to our 30 lbs of tomatoes and more spices too. We do add a tablespoon of lemon juice to each quart jar and have never had a problem with spoilage.
I’m just wondering why you use so many pots and don’t try using an electric roaster? It sure cuts down on the extra work.
I didn’t have a roaster.
Finally found THE recipe! It was well worth the time involved. I got 9 pints. I wish it wasn’t so late in the season so there would be enough tomatoes to make another batch!!!!! Planning for next year….
Nothing beats home canned.
I admit I did not read all the previous comments – just a quick scan. I was just wondering if it would be safe to remove the sugar from the recipe?
Sugar ties up free water, which inhibits microbe growth. Given that the sauce is pressure canned, it should be okay, but I always hesitate to significantly modify an approved recipe.