It’s canning season around here and holy batman, I have been in over my head!
our garden was shockingly successful this year, so much so that we are running out of jars and freezer space! probably the most overwhelming produce we’ve had has been our tomatoes! full disclosure, I genuinely hate tomatoes… I know how dare I right? BUT I do however love pasta sauce, ketchup, pizza, and marina sauce!
Having HUNDREDS of tomatoes has allowed me to really get my chef on, trying new recipes left and right. It helps knowing if I mess something up, we can either fix it later when we open the canned sauce, OR I can toss it all to the chickens and try again. there is NO shortage of tomatoes here!
This recipe took me about 3 tries to really get down to a science. and saying I have it down to a science is even pushing it. But I’ve sort of pieced together my own steps and methods that have thoroughly improved it! PS- if you’re new to cooking and playing with ingredients like I am, a tomato-based sauce is a great place to start! it’s hard to really “go wrong”
All that being said, here are my tried and true {thus far} steps to making the best, fastest, and EASIEST pizza sauce with homegrown tomatoes!
BONUS CANNING DIRECTIONS AT THE BOTTOM!
Ingredients:
20-25 tomatoes {we used roma}
1 – 1 1/2 whole onions
1/2 tablespoon of salt
1 tablespoon of oregano
1 tsp of thyme
1 tsp ground pepper
blender or emulsifier {if you have neither or prefer a chunky sauce, this is not necessary}
Directions:
Prepare the tomatoes:
- bring a LARGE pot of water to a boil and blanch tomatoes for 4 minutes
- remove tomatoes from water, let cool.
- *chop and begin carmalizing your onion in butter*
- once tomatoes cool enough to touch, halve them, peel them, core them and deseed them. remove all the inner contents of the tomato
- ring out each tomato meat before putting into a bowl {I just piled mine up in a ball! I have found that ringing out the tomatoes works much better than straining or baking to remove all the water and moisture, allowing the sauce to be thick rather than watery}
Begin making pizza sauce:
- combine carmailzed onions and rung out tomatoes into a pot or into blender.
- add seasonings
- blend or emulsify until smooth or desired texture is reached
- cook on low until the tempurature of the sauce is back up enough to serve!
Feel free to add or remove seasonings to your liking!
CANNING {water bathing} directions:
please note, if you are new to canning- I highly recommend you follow a few youtube channels or study a bit on the official ball canning website. you can also purchase the home preserving book from Ball Canning as well HERE. I got these instructions from my Ball Home Preserving book!
- prepare pizza sauce
- prepare your jars and lids, this recipe only makes about 1 quart jar. multiply accordingly!
- ladle HOT pizza sauce into HOT jars to avoice cracking or shattering glass. Fill to about 1/2 inch headspace.
- place lid on and tighten to fingertip tight
- place jar(s) into canning pot of HOT water and bring to a boil.
- once a boil is reached, put the lid on and set timer for 35 mins {if you are using your pressure canner pot to water bath, DO NOT SEAL THE LID}
- once 35mins is reached, remove the pot from heat and let sit for 10-15 minutes to cool down
- remove pot lid AWAY from you to avoid steam burns and gentley remove jar(s) with your jar tongs
- gentle set hot jars onto a kitchen towel {we line a deeper sheet pan with a towel to avoid a mess if glass SHOULD break, which we’ve yet to experience}
- let rest for 12 hours, ensuring the lid(s) have sealed {to check, simply press one finger into the top center of the lid. If the lid gives, the jar did not seal properly. if the lid is solid and slightly concave, your jar has sealed}
