Canning Spaghetti Sauce

July 24, 2011

Canning Spaghetti Sauce

My canning adventures continue. My most recent venture into the word of canning? Spaghetti sauce. We eat a lot of spaghetti sauce, so when my mother gave me a bunch of tomatoes, I immediately knew what to make.

Canning tomatoes is much easier than canning beans, because you can can (not the dance) tomatoes without a pressure canner. (For a breakdown on canning beans using a canner, click here.)

Here’s what you’ll need to can spaghetti sauce:

• Tomatoes
• Ice Water
• Crock Pot
• Pairing Knife
• Jars
• Jar Lids
• Jar Rings
• Funnel
• Slow Cooker
• Spaghetti Sauce Ingredients (see below)

The first thing you need to do when canning spaghetti sauce is sanitize your jars, rings and lids. You can do this by running the jars and rings through the dishwasher. I usually wash the lids, or flats, with soapy water.

Another benefit to washing your jars in the dishwasher is that they come out nice and hot. This is important since you won’t be using a pressure canner to seal your jars. My dishwasher runs on a two-hour cycle, so I timed making my spaghetti sauce to two hours.

If your jars are already sanitized and you won’t be using a dishwasher, you can heat them by pouring boiling water in each jar a few minutes before you pour your spaghetti sauce in. You can transfer the boiling water from jar to jar as you add spaghetti sauce. Just be sure and use a funnel, because pouring boiling water on your hands is no fun. Trust me.

Now that your jars are in the process of being sanitized, it’s time to prepare your spaghetti sauce.

The first thing you’ll want to do is peel and core your tomatoes. This can be done very simply by blanching your tomatoes in boiling water for a few minutes, and then dropping them into ice water.

Blanche Tomatoes by Dropping into Boiling Water

Drop Blanched Tomatoes into Ice Bath

Use your pairing knife to core each tomato.

Core Tomatoes

The skins will come loose in the boiling water, making them super easy to peel by hand. If they’re too hot to touch, drop them back in the water for a few seconds.

Peel Tomatoes By Hand

Once all of your tomatoes are peeled and cored, drop them into your slow cooker. I dropped mine in whole, but next time I’ll chop them up.

To your tomatoes, add your spaghetti sauce ingredients. You can follow any recipe you want. Through trial and error, I’ve come up with a simple sauce that is versatile enough to be used for spaghetti, pizza, chicken parmesan, etc.

To make my spaghetti sauce, you’ll need:

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