So, it's that season. The garden is producing and I'm in full on preserving food mood. My canners don't leave the kitchen very often and I'm very busy putting up food. I will admit though, my garden did not produce enough tomatoes this year for me to put up everything that I want, so I did purchase some locally. This week, it's been everything tomato I work my way through a bushel. I've been asked for the pizza sauce recipe I did this week, and since my internet seems to be cooperating at the moment, I figured I'd share it here too. I prefer to cook my sauce down in my slow cooker, which holds about 11 pounds of tomatoes plus other ingredients. If you have a larger roaster or just prefer to cook down on the stove top, you can double or quadruple the recipe.
Pizza Sauce for Canning
** Adapted from Ball Blue Book's Seasoned Tomato Sauce (no adaptions to fresh ingredients, only cooking and dry spices)
11 lbs tomatoes
1&1/2 cups onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
1/8 cup olive oil
1 tbsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp dried thyme
1&1/2 tsp black pepper
1&1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp crush red pepper flakes
If hot water bathed: bottled lemon juice or citric acid (1/4 tsp citric acid or 1 tbsp lemon juice to each pint or 1/2 tsp citric acid or 2 tbsp lemon juice to each quart)
1. Wash and core tomatoes. Cut out any bad spots. Put in a stock pot and heat to boiling. Use a strainer to remove skins and seeds. I was lucky enough to inherit one from my Grandma.
2. Chop the onions and mince the garlic. I use my food processor to chop quickly and efficiently.
3. Here's where I cheat. I put all the ingredients in my slow cooker and walk away. Depending on how much water the tomatoes had (regular tomatoes will be more watery than roma tomatoes for example) depends on how much I let the sauce cook down. Typically it's cooked down between 1/4 and 1/2 the amount of what I started with.
4. Blend with an immersion blender until you get the consistency you desire.
5. Can your pizza sauce.
Water Bath Canning: Make sure to add bottled lemon juice or citric acid to each jar. Make sure jars are clean and warm. Fill jar with sauce and leave 1/2 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Clean jar rim. Add lids and ring until fingertip-tight. Place in canner rack and repeat with all jars. Process pints and half pints for 35 minutes and quarts for 40 minutes. Make adjustments based on altitude if need be. (1001-3000 ft increase time 5 min, 3001-6000 ft increase time 10 min, 6001-8000 ft increase time 15 min, 8001-10000 ft increase time 20 min).
Pressure Canning: Fill jars with sauce and leave 1 inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Clean jar rim. Add lids and rings until fingertip-tight. Place in rack and repeat with all jars. Lock lid and vent pressure canner for 10 minutes. Put the wieght on at 10 lbs pressure. Process half pint and pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes. Adjust weight for altitude. (Weighted gauge 15 lbs for anything 1001 ft and above. Dial gauge: 0-1000 ft to 11 lbs, 1001-2000 ft to 11 lbs, 2001-4000 ft to 12 lbs, 4001-6000 ft to 13 lbs, 6001-8000 ft to 14 lbs, 8001-10000 ft to 15 lbs).
Remove jars from canners and let cool and do not disturb for 24 hours. Check seals, label and store.
I hope you enjoy the recipe! About 11 pounds of tomatoes gave me 10 half pints of sauce on my most recent run in September 2019.
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