How to Make and Can Homemade Tomato Sauce With Fresh Tomatoes the Easy Way

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Follow along with my easy guide to make your own tomato sauce. This recipe is super simple and tastes so good! Once you start making your own, you will never want to go back to store bought sauce.

This tomato sauce does not require as much work as traditional sauce recipes do. You are not going to be blanching the tomatoes and peeling or using a mill to get rid of seeds and skins. I did that one year and it just seemed like a lot of work. And I figured when you eat a fresh tomato, you eat the skins and seeds anyway, so why couldn’t they be in the sauce in fine form? So this is a lazy mom’s good enough tomato sauce recipe. 😉

Where to get your tomatoes?

You could always grow your own tomatoes. This is an option that many of those who are amazing at preserving do. I, however, am not the best gardener yet, so never produce enough tomatoes at a time to can my own. So, I go to farmers markets and produce stands and look for deals on bulk tomatoes or any produce, for that matter that I’d like to preserve. Usually these are the items that are just on the verge of going bad but work wonderful for turning into sauce, salsa, jellies and more! So always check your local farmers markets and produce stands to grab some awesome deals.

How much to buy?

I like to buy in bulk and it really all depends on the prices I find for the quality and quantity. Home canned goods have a several year shelf life so I really love to do as much as I can at a time to last us a couple of years. This year I bought fifty pounds and it made 27 pints of sauce. It’s still relatively early enough that I think I will continue to find more deals and can sauce at least one more time.

What kind of tomatoes should I use?

Any tomatoes will work. Typically Roma tomatoes are not as juicy so that helps to not make your sauce as runny, but you can use any kind. Ive mixed kinds before as well and the sauce is still delicious!

How long does it take?

Canning tomato sauce is not hard, but depending on how many pounds you can at a time, it can be a little time consuming. Fifty pounds can be done in one day with my method.

What tools do I need?

First and foremost, you are going to need a water bath canner. These are really great to have. You can use it for most fruits because they have a higher acidic level. You need a pressure canner for canning vegetables and meat. Here are the canners I have.

A few more supplies you probably already have but will need…

• Sheet pans I like to have a couple of these so I can have some in the oven and have others prepped to go in.
• Immersion Blender
• Cutting Board
• Serrated Knife These are my favorite! They are a great investment!
• Canning Jars- Quart or pint/regular or wide mouth all work!
• Jar lifter

Now let’s get to the recipe…

Ingredients:

• tomatoes
• olive oil
• salt
• pepper
• lemon juice

First, start by washing all of your tomatoes. I usually run water in my sink with a little apple cider vinegar and let the soak as I quarter the up and get pans ready.

While you are doing the first step, I like to sterilize my jars. To do this, you need to wash the jars and boil them or I like to fill them half way with water and line a baking sheet with my jars and put in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Once your tomatoes are washed, start to quarter them up and place on a baking sheet. Cut out any bad spots you see. I typically leave the core in as well. If the tomatoes are really large, you can cut the quarters a little smaller. You want the pieces about the same size so they roast evenly.

Once you fill a sheet with your tomato quarters, you want to drizzle olive oil all over the top of them. Then generously top with salt and pepper.

Stick your pan in the oven to roast at 400 degrees for about 30-50 minutes. You want the tomatoes pretty soft in order to get everything blended up well.

While your tomatoes are roasting, fill your water bath canner and get the water boiling.

When the tomatoes come out, I like to drain the excess liquid off the pan. Add the tomatoes to a large bowl and use your immersion blender to blend the pieces into a smooth sauce.

Fill each jar with the hot liquid sauce. Leave 1/4 inch headspace. For pints add a tablespoon of lemon juice and for quarts add two tablespoons of lemon juice. The lemon juice is to make sure your acidic level is high enough that bad bacteria does not grow.

Place your jars in the boiling water and water bath can pints for 35 minutes and quarts for 40 minutes. Different altitudes do require different canning times so it is always wise to double check yours.

Once they are done canning, lift jars out with the jar lifter and allow to rest until you hear the seals seal up. This can take some time, sometimes overnight for some, but most will seal up quickly.

Be sure to date and label the tops. Fresh preserved food really has a long shelf life but I recommend using within two to three years. Happy Canning!