Canned Pizza Sauce (Amish Canning Recipe)

Canning Pizza Sauce/Canning Spaghetti Sauce

This canned pizza sauce recipe is made from scratch with fresh tomatoes and can easily be used as a pizza sauce or pasta sauce.

It's the best homemade canned pizza sauce recipe, and it's easy to make.

In this post, I will walk you through the simple steps of turning fresh tomatoes into a delicious sauce that can be used to make numerous different dishes.

What's the Difference Between Pasta Sauce and Pizza Sauce?

Some people claim that there is a noticeable difference between pizza sauce and pasta sauce, and they recommend that you don't use them interchangeably.

Supposedly, pizza sauce is made with uncooked tomatoes. And there probably is a slight difference between the two. But, in my opinion, there's not enough difference to bother buying or making two different sauces.

I love to use this homemade tomato sauce for any Italian dishes that I make. And I will be referring to it as spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce because I use it for both.

And every summer, I use this Amish homemade spaghetti sauce recipe for canning. I like to can several batches of tomato spaghetti sauce so that I have enough to last until the next summer.

We go through a lot of jars of spaghetti sauce since we use it for spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, stuffed shells, meatball sandwiches, etc. So it's always nice to have a big supply of this delicious pizza sauce from fresh tomatoes.

Canning Homemade Pizza Sauce

Growing up Amish, I was used to doing lots of canning. My mom had a huge garden, and every summer we preserved lots of fruits and vegetables.

We canned hundreds of jars of all different kinds of food. And needless to say, I was always very thankful when canning season was over for another year.

Now that I have my own garden, I still like to do some canning. Although, I've cut back and have not done very much canning in the past few years. (With the increase in grocery prices I may have to start canning more again.)

But even though I don't can a lot anymore, spaghetti/pizza sauce is one thing that I still do every year.

The number one reason I keep canning pizza sauce every year is because it's the best pasta sauce. And the good brands at the store are too expensive to buy.

The second reason is that we use a lot of pasta/pizza sauce. Homemade pizza on Saturday nights is a tradition at our house. And if you've ever made a big pan of lasagna, you know that it takes a lot of sauce.

Plus, pasta sauce is something that I always like to have on hand. Keep pasta sauce and spaghetti noodles in your pantry, and you can throw together a quick and delicious meal on any given night.

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Canning Tomato Sauce with Skins and Seeds

Growing up, we always put our canning tomatoes through a Victoria Strainer, and it removes the seeds and peels. We used to wash and cut the tomatoes outside, and we clamped the strainer onto our picnic table to keep the mess outdoors.

But when I'm canning tomatoes, I do it the easy way and include the seeds and peels. You can't tell the difference in the end result, and the seeds and peels add extra health benefits.

I have found that it's harder to grow tomatoes in Missouri than it was in Pennsylvania. And I have to plant double the amount of tomato plants to get a yield like my mom did.

So, I don't usually get enough tomatoes in one picking to can a batch of fresh pasta sauce. Plus I don't feel like canning pizza sauce every week or two.

So I started putting my tomatoes into the freezer until I have enough to make one or two batches of pasta sauce.

I pick my tomatoes about twice a week. Then I wash, core, and cut them up into chunks. I put them into ice cream buckets and place them in the freezer.

They are all ready to cook, and it's so easy to make homemade spaghetti sauce from scratch once I have enough to can a big batch.

Blender Tomato Sauce

So when I have several buckets of tomatoes ready to turn into pizza sauce, I remove them from the freezer. (Obviously, you don't have to freeze them, if you have enough tomatoes in one day to can a batch of sauce).

If I think about it the night before, I remove the tomatoes from the freezer and let them thaw overnight. But it's no big deal to cook them from frozen either.

Place the cut tomatoes into a large cooking pot or two. Add the onions, peppers, and garlic and let them cook over medium heat for about an hour. Stir occasionally.

While they are cooking, you can prepare the remaining ingredients.

After cooking the tomatoes for about an hour, remove them from the heat and carefully scoop some of them into the blender and pulse them until completely liquified. If you don't do it long enough you may end up with pieces of tomato peel that are not fully pureed.

(I use my blender with a glass pitcher. I've never used an immersion blender, but if I had one I'd probably give it a try.)

Use Caution with Hot Tomatoes

If using a blender, you will have to do this in many batches. And you will need to use caution. You're working with extremely hot liquid, so be careful.

Do not fill the blender to the top.

And make sure to start the blender on low speed.

If you start the blender off at high speed, the hot tomato juice will create pressure. And it can cause the lid to fly off, spraying hot tomato juice everywhere.

So please, believe me, you don't want the blender too full, and you want to start at low speed and then slowly increase to high. Because you do not want hot liquid in your face or anywhere else, for that matter.

I place a rag on top of the lid and place my hand on top of it before starting the blender, just as an extra precaution.

Pizza Sauce Recipe - Canning

While my tomatoes are cooking, I mix the tomato paste, oil, sugar, salt, garlic salt, and oregano in a large stainless steel bowl. (Sometimes you can find large stainless steel bowls at Amish/Mennonite bulk food stores). I blend the fresh basil and bay leaves along with the tomatoes and veggies.

After the tomatoes are blended, I pour them into the large bowl with the remaining ingredients. Mix it all together then place the sauce back into your large cooking pot.

Cook the sauce over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for another hour.

Pour the hot spaghetti sauce into clean hot jars. (You can use any size canning jars, just make sure they are strong enough to stand boiling water. I reuse the jars from spaghetti sauce that I bought at the store.)

You can wash your jars in the dishwasher and keep them hot until ready to fill. Or just place the jars into a large bowl of very hot water and turn them upside down for a bit before filling.

I use my 2-cup glass pitcher to pour the sauce into a funnel that's placed over the mouth of the jar (using a funnel helps to prevent a mess). Fill the jar, leaving almost a 1/2" headspace. (Only fill to the mouth of the jar.)

With a clean cloth, wipe the rim of the jar and screw the hot lid (or band) to fingertip tightness. (I place my lids into a pot of boiling water, then carefully remove them with tongs when ready to place on the jar.)

Canning Spaghetti Sauce Without a Pressure Cooker

You can use a pressure cooker to can pizza/pasta sauce.

But I have never in my life used a pressure cooker to can. My Amish mom never owned a pressure cooker canner. And she canned chicken and everything with the water bath canning method.

So I have always used the water bath canning method as well. But according to the latest research, this is not considered a safe method for certain foods.

However, tomatoes are higher in acid. And I have found water bath canning to work well. Although, it's now also recommended to add extra acid to tomatoes to make water bath canning safe.

So, I am going to recommend that you follow the safety guidelines and add about 2 Tbsp. of bottled lemon juice or 1/2 tsp. citric acid to the bottom of each quart jar of pasta sauce to raise the acidity level. It shouldn't affect the taste too much.

Water Bath Canning Spaghetti Sauce

Place your hot jars of pasta sauce into a canner full of hot water (the water should cover the jars). Bring to a boil and keep at a low boil for about 35 minutes. (To reduce hard water build-up on the outside of the jars, you can add 1 Tbsp. of white vinegar to the canner water.)

(If you are new to canning, check out this link for more info on water bath canning.)

Carefully remove the jars from the canner with canning tongs and place them on a heat-proof surface. And do not disturb the cans for twenty-four hours giving them time to seal properly.

After twenty-four hours, check the lids to ensure that they have properly sealed. With most lids, there should be an indent in the middle of the lid (kind of like it's being sucked in).

If a jar or two isn't sealed, you can place them in the refrigerator and use them within a week or two.

Store the sealed jars of freshly canned pizza sauce in a dry and cool place for up to a year (or two 🙂 ).

I hope you enjoy this recipe for canned pizza sauce. It's delicious! And I hope you feel rewarded when you see a shelf lined with the fruit of your labor.

More Amish Recipes to try...

Amish Cucumber Salad Recipe

Homemade Vanilla Yogurt Recipe

Amish Homemade Granola Cereal Recipe

PA Dutch Rice Pudding Recipe