Easy Tomato Sauce Canning

This tomato sauce canning recipe cuts out the most time-consuming step -peeling- and replaces it with the use of an appliance nearly every busy mom has- the blender. If you want to can healthy tomato sauce for your family, but don’t want it to take forever, this recipe is for you.

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First, I recommend you use a steam canner for your easy homemade tomato sauce canning instead of the traditional water bath because they save about 25 minutes for every subsequent batch. Steam canners are amazing, USDA approved pot that makes canning FAST. You can read more about them here. If you don’t have a steam canner yet, don’t worry. I have step by step directions for BOTH water bath and steam canning below.

For this easy tomato sauce canning recipe, you’ll need a blender. Instead of coring and peeling the tomatoes (which takes a long time, makes a big mess, and is honestly a real drag) you will quarter or half the tomatoes (depending on the efficacy of your blender) and blend them smooth.

Do you need to peel the tomatoes before canning?

No. In this great post by Epicurious, two important details are explained. 1. Peels can impart a bitter flavor and 2. the skin is where a ton of healthful compounds are found. Indeed, 98 percent of flavonols are found in the skin. The USDA further confirmed that thicker skins may impart a bitterness, but it is safe to include them in canning recipes.

I decided that the health benefit and time savings were worth the possible risk of bitterness, and mitigated this risk by choosing cherry tomatoes and tomatoes with thinner skins.

I found that the following recipe had NO BITTERNESS and was so much faster than peeling tomatoes. You’ll never go back to peeling, I’m sure.

Easy Tomato Sauce Canning Recipe

You will need 

12 pounds cherry or other thin-skinned tomatoes, halved or quartered

1/2 a medium onion, diced

2 teaspoons chopped garlic, jarred type is fine

2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon black pepper

citric acid – 1/2 teaspoon added to each pint jar upon lid application

1. Prepare your water bath canning pot or your steam canner. Fill the water bath canning pot with water, add 7 pint jars, and bring to a boil OR fill the steam canner to fill line and turn on low with the 7 pint jars nearby on a towel-covered counter top. 

2. Blend the tomatoes.  Start on the “food chop” setting, and then move to a “medium blend setting”, for up to two minutes or until the visible skin pieces in the blender are smaller than half an inch.

3. Combine olive oil, garlic, and onion in the bottom of a preserving pan at medium-low heat and cook till onion is soft. Add salt and pepper.

4.Pour the blended tomato on top ofthe cooked garlic & onion mixture and stir to combine. Repeat the blending process until all tomatoes are blended and added.

5. Cook on medium heat until sauce is reduced, darker red in color, about 1 hour.

6. Ladle into jars one at a time, add 1/2 teaspoon citric acid to each jar, maintain 1/2 inch headspace, apply lids and rings, and either submerge into the boiling water of the boiling water bath with a jar lifter  OR set gently on the rack of the steam canner. 

7. Process for 25 minutes PLUS 5 minutes for every 1000 ft above sea level. Remove from heat, rest jars carefully on towel covered countertop. Label cooled jars and store for up to 1 year. Yields 8-10 pints.

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