Home Canned Pizza Sauce

We have had tons of tomatoes this year. Last year I canned pizza sauce and we really liked it, so I decided to make some more this year. Be sure to check out my canning tips before you get started.

Here's what you need to make your own pizza sauce:

 

 Pizza Sauce
adapted from Food{dot}com
25-28 tomatoes, peeled and pureed
2 onions, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t. pepper
1 T. sugar
2 T. parsley
1 T. oregano
1 T. basil
2 t. salt
lemon juice

Place all ingredients except lemon juice into a large pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer until mixture is reduced by 1/2, stirring occasionally. This will take a few hours. Place 1 T. lemon juice in each pint jar, then fill with pizza sauce. Process for 40 minutes in a water bath canner.

The original recipe said to saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. I did NOT do this. For one thing, they will be cooked as they simmer. The other, bigger reason, is that if you have any kind of fat in a recipe it is safer to pressure cook the jars, instead of doing a water bath. Since a waterbath is easier, I omitted the oil. 

One of the other things I changed was the lemon juice. The recipe calls for it to be boiled with the sauce. According to the Utah State University Cooperative Extension: "To ensure safe acidity in whole, crushed, or juiced tomatoes, add two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice or ½ teaspoon of citric acid per quart of tomatoes. For pints, use one tablespoon bottled lemon juice or ¼ teaspoon citric acid. Acid should be added directly to the jars before filling with product. Add sugar to offset acid taste, if desired. Four tablespoons of a 5% acidity vinegar per quart may be used instead of lemon juice or citric acid. However, vinegar may cause undesirable flavor changes. We recommend lemon juice or citric acid." Click here to find this quote {on 2nd page} and for more info on canning tomatoes.


The last thing I altered was the spices. Some of them I didn't have, and spices are a matter of personal preference anyway.

This is fairly easy to make, just time consuming since it has to simmer so long.

Click here for a list of more canning recipes.