Canning pizza sauce at home is easy and a great way to preserve an abundance of tomatoes. Canning friendly, this recipe is full of flavor and easy to prepare!
We love pizza around here, but the jars of pizza sauce from the grocery store are typically either lacking or expensive. Thankfully, we grow a lot of our own tomatoes so canning our own isn’t too much of an issue.
Like my favorite canned salsa, tomato soup, and tomato chutney… this recipe will beat any store-bought version every time.
The best part, it only needs eleven simple ingredients and a little bit of time to make. You can use fresh or frozen tomatoes for this or, if you’re really pressed for time, you could even use store-bought tomato passata.
Regardless of what type of tomato you use to make it; this pizza sauce is amazing and will be perfect for making your own homemade pizza, pizza rolls, or stromboli.
What kind of sauce is used on pizza?
Thicker than pasta sauce, pizza sauce is made with puréed tomatoes. The thicker sauce makes it so that the dough doesn’t get as soggy as it would with traditional pasta sauce.
Pizza sauce also has more spices and seasonings added to it than most simple marinara sauces. Those spices result in a deeper flavor that pairs very well with the typical pizza.
Best Tomatoes for Canning Pizza Sauce
Much like any other tomato canning recipe, you can absolutely use any type of tomato and get your desired result. However, if you can get your hands on San Marzano tomatoes they provide the best flavor.
These are a type of plum tomato that is more elongated than a typical plum tomato. They have thick flesh and sweet flavor that is unparalleled for making sauces like pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, and other Italian-inspired sauces.
Another great option is Roma tomatoes or other paste tomatoes as these are also meaty, have few seeds, and aren’t overly juicy.
That said, you can use any tomato you have growing in your garden and still wind up with an excellent sauce. Just some are going to result in a thinner sauce than others.
Ingredients for Canning Pizza Sauce
This recipe calls for simple ingredients, most of which you probably already have in your pantry. You can find exact measurements for the ingredients in the printable recipe card below.
Tomatoes – You may use fresh tomatoes, frozen tomatoes, or even canned tomatoes for this recipe. Frozen tomatoes will cut down on how long the sauce needs cooked down.
You will need approximately 9 pounds of tomatoes to make the 13 cups of required tomato purée.
Spices for homemade pizza sauce – garlic, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, and salt. You may also change up spices, use Italian seasoning, omit certain spices etc. See my notes in the recipe card below.
Honey or sugar – While you can omit it, it’s not necessary for the safety of the recipe, it does help cut down on the acidity of the tomatoes and results in a more balanced sauce.
Olive oil – or another neutral cooking oil
Lemon juice – to ensure the proper acid levels in your home canned tomato products preventing the germination of botulism spores.
How to Make Home Canned Pizza Sauce from fresh or frozen tomatoes
This recipe is simple without being too time intensive, but it does require a bit of work unless you choose to use premade passata.
Make the tomato purée
Unless you are using canned passata you will need to purée the tomatoes before making the pizza sauce.
If using fresh first, wash, core, and quarter tomatoes.
Frozen tomatoes, on the other hand, will need thaw them overnight in a bowl or sink and then drain the liquid off. If they were cored and quartered before freezing, you’ve saved yourself a bit of time later. If not, they will need cored and quartered before going to the next stewp.
After preparing the tomatoes, fresh or frozen, run them through a food mill, victorio strainer, or this handy electric food strainer.
You can also make this recipe without any food mills or strainers, but it’s a lot more time-intensive. Simply blanch, peel, core, seed, and chop up the tomatoes and place them in a colander.
Allow the colander of tomatoes to stand for 15 minutes before discarding the liquid and then purée the tomatoes with a food processor.
Make the sauce
In a large stock pot heat olive oil over medium heat and sautée the minced garlic.
Next, place half of the tomato purée in the large pot and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.
After the mixture of garlic and tomato is boiling, add remaining purée a cup at a time, maintaining a constant boil. This helps in preventing the separation of tomato solids and water.
After all of the purée has been added, stir in the lemon juice, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, honey, and salt.
Boil the mixture hard, uncovered, for 15 to 30 minutes until it reaches the consistency of a thick sauce, stirring occasionally.
Making Canned Pizza Sauce from Canned Tomatoes
You can skip the processing of tomatoes into purée by using commercially canned passata as well. This will drastically reduce the time it takes to cook the sauce down.
Sautée the garlic in the olive oil as mentioned above, then add all of the remaining ingredients, including all of the passata.
Boil the mixture, uncovered, in a large stockpot for approximately 10 minutes until it reaches the desired consistency… typically about the consistency of ketchup is our preferred consistency for pizza sauce.
Prepare jars, canner, and lids
While the sauce is cooking down, prepare jars, lids, and canner by washing jars in hot, soapy water and filling them with water. Place them in a boiling water bath canner filled with water and bring to 180°F over medium-high heat.
Keep the jars hot while finishing cooking down the sauce.
Pack jars
Remove the pot from heat and ladle hot sauce into hot jars, fitted with a canning funnel to reduce mess, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace.
Remove air bubbles and adjust headspace if necessary.
Wipe the rim of the jar, center the lid and finger tighten the screw band.
Process the jars
Place the jars in the waiting boiling water canner, making sure the tops of the jars are covered by at least 1″ of water.
Put the lid on the canner and bring to a hard boil. Processing time for both half pint jars and pint jars is 35 minutes, adjusting for altitude if necessary.
After processing, turn off the heat and remove the lid. Allow the jars to sit in the canner for five minutes before removing to a towel-lined counter.
Leave jars undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours before checking seals. Remove screw bands from properly sealed jars and store.
What is the shelf life of canned pizza sauce?
Properly sealed jars will store in a cool, dark place for approximately 18 months. Be sure to remove the screw bands and do not stack more than two jars high.
How to freeze pizza sauce
You can make this homemade pizza sauce recipe as stated above and then freeze it if you do not care to can it. To do so, allow the sauce to cool to room temperature and ladle sauce into sterilized jars with straight sides, a freezer safe bowl, or into freezer bags.
After packing it into the freezer containers, place the packaged sauce in the freezer. It will store for around 6 to 8 months. Thaw before using.
If you try this amazing pizza sauce for canning recipe, feel free to give me your thoughts and questions in the comments section below. Also, I’d love if you’d leave me a five-star recipe card rating and you can tag me on Instagram @therusticelk!
Easy Canning Pizza Sauce Recipe
This delicious sauce is perfect for pizza night! Spread it over your favorite crust, put your favorite pizza toppings on and enjoy a super quick, easy, and incredibly delicious pizza made with homemade goodness.
Ingredients
- 9 Lbs Plum Tomatoes (fresh or frozen) or 13 Cups Tomato Passata
- 4 Cloves Garlic (minced)
- 1/8 Cup Olive Oil
- 1 Tbsp Dried Oregano
- 1/2 Tbsp Dried Thyme
- 1 tsp Dried Rosemary
- 1 tsp Dried Sage
- 1 Tbsp Salt
- 1/2 Tbsp Honey (can substitute granulated sugar)
- 1/2 C Bottled Lemon Juice
Instructions
- To make purée from fresh tomatoes: core and quarter and run through a food mill or strainer of choice.
- To make purée from frozen tomatoes: assuming they were cored and quartered before freezing, thaw overnight in a sink or bowl, drain off the liquid and run them through a food mill. If they weren't cored and halved or quartered first, you'll need to do that after they have thawed.
- Make sauce from fresh or frozen tomatoes processed into purée or store bought tomato passata. In a large pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and sauté minced garlic until fragrant. If using homemade purée ut half of the purée into the pot and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. If using passata, you can add all of it to the pot now.
- Once boiling, add remaining tomato purée one cup at a time, maintaining a constant boil. Once all of the purée has been added, add oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, salt, honey, and lemon juice to the pot.
- Boil the mixture hard. Stir it frequently to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pot. Cook down until the mixture is thick, about the consistency of ketchup. This will take approximately 30 minutes.
- While the mixture is cooking down, Prepare the jars, lids, and water bath canner. Keep the jars hot.
- Once the pizza sauce is the right consistency, remove it from the heat and carefully ladle the hot sauce into the hot jars, leaving 1/2" of headspace.
- Remove the air bubbles and adjust headspace if necessary. Wipe rims, center lids, tighten screw bands to finger tight.
- Place the jars in the waiting boiling water canner, ensuring the tops of the jars are covered by at least 1" of water.
- Place the lid on the canner, bring to a boil over high heat. Process both half pints and pint jars for 35 minutes, adjusting processing time for altitude if necessary.
- Remove the lid from the canner, allow the jars to sit for 5 minutes before removing to a towel-lined counter.
- Check seals after 12-24 hours. Store, with screw bands removed, in a dark place for up to 18 months.
Notes
Altitude adjustments for processing times:
0-1,000 ft 35 Minutes
1,001-3,000 ft 40 Minutes
3,000-6,000 ft 45 Minutes
6,000 ft+ 50 Minutes
Recipe substitutions:
You can safely add up to a cup of onion to the recipe. You can substitute fresh minced garlic for garlic powder, simply add it when you add the other dried seasonings and omit the olive oil.
You can change up the dried seasonings to suit your tastes. Add in some fennel, Italian seasoning, or red pepper flakes to suit your desired tastes.
This recipe can be frozen. Make as stated above, then allow the mixture to cool to room temperature before placing in freezer safe containers. Freeze for 6 to 8 months, thaw before using.
If you add any meat to this sauce, such as anchovies, it would need to be pressure canned to maintain safe canning practices.