Easy Canned Pizza Sauce Recipe With Frozen or Fresh Tomatoes
Ever wondered how to make delicious pizza sauce from scratch with either fresh or frozen tomatoes? Here’s a simple, easy to follow canned pizza sauce recipe with detailed steps and tips to make the perfect sauce right in your kitchen to water-bath can or freeze. The biggest tip of all? Using frozen tomatoes to reduce cooking time and to be able to make it when you want! Say goodbye to store bought cans and hello to your new go-to homemade recipe for your next pizza night.
✩ What readers are saying…
“This is the best…..the method and the recipe!!! I am so excited to have my own pizza sauce…It is so thick and beautiful.” -Yvonne
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This wonderfully seasoned canned pizza sauce forms the MVP’s of my canning recipes together with my favorite salsa, roasted tomato sauce, and addictive tomato chutney.
So during the tomato harvest I make enough of these four staples to see us through the year and I only make other things like bruschetta topping or rotel if I have any tomatoes left. It’s part of how I make sure we have enough of what we use the most so that I never have to buy them at the store.
However, for a number of reasons (time issues, weird tomato season, other commitments), one year I just couldn’t find the time to make all our tomato recipes when the tomatoes were coming in fast and furious. Since I had a few cans of pizza sauce left on the shelf I concentrated on the other tomato recipes and simply froze enough bags of paste tomatoes (with a few heirlooms thrown in for great flavor) to be able to make the pizza sauce later.
In January I pulled out the frozen tomatoes and made the easiest, best pizza sauce ever that was done in record time! Since then I’ve frozen our tomatoes at least a day or two before making sauce, even during canning season, because less cooking time is a good thing!
While you can, of course, make this sauce from fresh tomatoes – and I give directions for both – frozen is my preferred way now since it makes the cooking down part go so much quicker. Read on for all the details, including answers to lots of questions after the recipe card!
Recipe Ingredients
Besides tomatoes you’ll need the following ingredients:
Ingredient Notes
- Oil: I prefer olive oil as it’s traditional in Italian style sauces, but you can use avocado oil or an oil of your choice. And yes, it’s safe to use this small amount of oil in a canned recipe – see note below.
- Fresh onions and garlic: To keep this recipes safe for canning you MUST stick to the amounts of fresh ingredients that are listed in the recipe card. DO NOT add more garlic, onions, or fresh herbs.
- Salt: You can use canning salt or pure sea salt – you want a salt with no additives like table salt has.
Origin and Safety of this Canned Pizza Sauce Recipe
This recipe is based on the Ball Blue Book’s Seasoned Tomato Sauce, cut in half and with different dry spices to make it a pizza sauce. (It’s in this most recent version of the Blue Book on page 33.) It’s a tested recipe that safely uses the fresh onions and garlic called for as well as the oil. Feel free to use less if you’d like but you cannot use more if you want to can it to be shelf stable (you can use as many fresh things as you’d like if you’re freezing the sauce).
Canned Pizza Sauce Recipe: Step-by-Step
Detailed quantities and instructions are included in the full recipe box below, but here are a few extra tips to help with each step:
Step 1: Thaw (if needed), Puree and Strain Tomatoes
To Use Frozen Tomatoes
- Thaw tomatoes (overnight is good) in a bowl or the sink (in case the bags leak). (Reader Tip: “To thaw, we fill (half way) a CLEAN SINK with hot tap water, then dump a half bag (at a time) of the frozen tomatoes into the hot water for a few moments, and the peels slide off easily. Then we continue with the thawing process. It saves a lot of time and ware & tear on the machine.”)
- Drain the accumulated clear juices- open one corner of the baggie and pour off the juice.
- Run through a food mill to remove the seeds and skins.
To Use Fresh Tomatoes
- Wash, core, and halve tomatoes.
- Bring to a boil in a large stock pot. Remove from heat. (Reader Tip: “My new lazy way to start these recipes is to roast the tomatoes, its easier/faster than stovetop and goes through the processor easily. Simply wash, cut in half, cut the stem out and roast at 350 for around 20-40 minutes, depending on how many you’re roasting.”)
- Strain skin and seeds through a food mill.
Three Ways to Strain Tomatoes for Sauce
- Victorio Food Strainer and Sauce Maker (above top left). To me this maker is like the little girl with the curl: when it’s good, it’s very very good and when it’s bad…well, you know. Even though I’ve read you don’t need to heat the thawed frozen tomatoes, this food mill just didn’t want to work with them until I heated them a bit.
- Tripod/Cone Food Mill (Chinois): I ended up reverting back to my vintage metal tripod food mill (which you can still buy new – I guess some designs have staying power!) for some of the cold pulp, but it takes more elbow grease and doesn’t result in as much usable pulp as the Victorio.
- Electric Sauce Maker: This may be the easiest way to get tomato sauce ever! Shown above on the bottom is the FreshTech Harvest Pro Sauce Maker which is sadly not made anymore (see below for available substitutes). I’ve used this with both fresh tomatoes as well as frozen tomatoes and it works fabulously with both. I had sauce in no time without needing to bother with heating in any form. I truly do love using a machine – it really makes this easy (as well as other sauces like applesauce).
Since I use the electric sauce maker multiple times in a growing season for tomato products and apples because it saves so much time and effort, I’ve rounded up a couple options for you to check out since the one I use is no longer made:
- Weston Deluxe Electric Tomato Strainer, Food Mill, Sauce Maker
- VEVOR Electric Tomato Strainer, 400W Tomato Sauce Maker Machine (half price of the one above)
- KitchenAid KSMFVSP Fruit and Vegetable Attachment Strainer (most inexpensive option if you have a KitchenAid)
TIP: Idea for using up all the pulp from straining:
Spread all the pulp as thinly as you can on parchment-lined trays in a dehydrator and dry at 135 until it’s crisp and completely dry all the way through (this will take hours – the exact amount depends on your machine and humidity).
Once completely dry, break off pieces into a blender or food processor and whir until it’s even crumbles. Keep on the shelf in a mason jar and add to anything you’d like to thicken or flavor – soups, chili, and sauces!
Step 2: Make Pizza Sauce
- Sauté onion and garlic in olive oil for a few minutes and then add the tomato puree and all the seasonings. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and then simmer 30 minutes.
- Blend the sauce to make it smooth (yes, you’ll appreciate the smooth sauce on the pizza). You can carefully transfer batches to a blender or you can do what I do – use an immersion hand-held blender right in the pot.
- Bring back to a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer the sauce on low until it thickens to your desired consistency. This will take 1-2 hours, depending on if you started with frozen tomatoes (less time) or fresh (more time). It also will depend on how juicy the tomatoes were you started with – paste tomatoes take less time, slicing are juicier and will take longer.
TIP: Sauce taking longer to thicken? I’ve gotten questions similar to this: “My sauce did not thicken after two hours of simmering (used fresh tomatoes) – why?”
Answer: Your tomatoes were probably juicier, which happens a lot with fresh tomatoes if you’re not pouring off juice from frozen tomatoes first. Also it depends on the type of tomato – slicing/heirloom tomatoes are much juicier than paste tomatoes. Just keep simmering! (This is why I like starting with frozen tomatoes so much!)
Step 3: Water Bath Can the Sauce (or Freeze)
Note: You can always freeze the sauce – let it cool and transfer to freezer safe containers for up to a year – but for the most convenience, can the pizza sauce to be shelf stable.
- Add lemon juice or citric acid to each jar, fill jar with 1/2-inch headspace, wipe rims, and attach lids. Do one jar at a time, adding each to the rack of a water bath canner before filling the next jar.
- Process both pints and half-pints for 35 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
- Remove to a towel-lined surface and let sit undisturbed for 24 hours.
TIP: I’ve found that both half-pint 8-ounce or 12-ounce jars are good sizes for medium-to-large pizzas. The 12-oz. jars are actually the perfect size but they’re harder to find, so use what you have (whole pints are too much, which causes the dough to not cook fully in the center, unless you regularly make 2 pizzas at a time).
If you’re new to canning this tutorial will take you through each step. You can also watch all the easy steps to water-bath canning in this video:
How much pizza sauce to make for a year?
We make this easy homemade pizza dough a couple times each month (every other Saturday, like I outline in my menu planning tips), though sometimes we make the pizza with pesto instead of tomato sauce so I aim to have 20-24 jars on our shelves in varying sizes to last a year.
Oh, and this sauce is also good in any Italian recipe, so it finds its way into things other than pizza – a lot.
Reader Raves
“I just used your recipe earlier this week & I must say kudos and thanks to you! It used up all the tomatoes from my garden perfectly and your freezer method was fabulous as my tomatoes came ripe at different times…We cannot wait to dig into this! Thanks so much for the great recipe!” -Nicole
“This is an incredible recipe. We have our jars processing in the water bath now. There was a little bit of sauce left in the pot that we ate up with bread. This recipe will be used for the years to come. Yummy!!!” -Roberta
“Thank you for the great recipe! Mine is simmering down now and smells awesome…I’m new to this canning thing so I get a little nervous but your post really was great in explaining everything.” -Susan
“This was freakin fantastic. I started with a half batch and once I tasted I knew I’d have to do more. If I wasn’t so greedy, I’d share with friends but I might like my new pizza sauce more than I like them.” -Kat
I hope you love this canned pizza sauce recipe, too – if you make it, be sure to leave a recipe rating so I know how you liked it! (Have a question? Scroll down to see if I’ve answered it!)
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Easy Canned Pizza Sauce Recipe With Frozen or Fresh Tomatoes
Equipment
- Sauce maker/food sieve
- 12-quart or large stock pot
- water bath canner and supplies if canning
- canning jars and lids if canning (freezer containers if freezing)
Ingredients
- 22 pounds tomatoes fresh or whole frozen
- 3 cups chopped onions
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1/2-1 tablespoon black pepper, or to taste if you’re not as much a pepper fan as we are
- 1 tablespoon sugar or honey or to taste
- 2 tablespoons salt, canning salt or pure sea salt
- 1-2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes, to taste – use less if you're unsure or omit
- Bottled lemon juice or citric acid: 1 tablespoon lemon juice OR 1/4 teaspoon citric acid for EACH pint and 12-oz jars; 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice OR 1/8 teaspoon citric acid for EACH half-pint jars I usually use citric acid, as it doesn’t add more liquid to our sauce
Instructions
Prepare tomato puree from frozen tomatoes:
- (Assuming they were cleaned and cored before freezing) leave to thaw 24 hours; drain accumulated juices.
- Put the thawed tomatoes through a strainer to remove seeds and peels.
Prepare tomato puree from fresh tomatoes:
- Wash, core and halve tomatoes. Heat to boiling and then remove from heat (TIP: I use a 12-quart stockpot and a 6-quart soup pot for 22 pounds).
- Put through a strainer while warm to remove seeds and peels.
Make the pizza sauce:
- In a 12-quart or larger stockpot cook onions and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until the onion softens, 5-10 minutes. Add tomato puree and all the seasonings (basil through pepper flakes). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and cook for about 30 minutes, uncovered. Process with an immersion blender to make a smoother sauce (or carefully blend in batches).
- Bring back to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until sauce reaches desired consistency (reduced by 1/4 to 1/3), usually an hour or two, depending on if you started with fresh or frozen tomatoes (it may take longer – cook until desired consistency). Make sure to stir occasionally to prevent sticking (TIP: if you have a thin-bottomed stock-pot, stir more often to prevent scorching).
Water-Bath Can:
- Add the lemon juice or citric acid to each clean, warm jar, fill jar with sauce leaving 1/2-inch headspace and attach lids and rings until fingertip-tight. Place in canner rack and repeat with remaining jars to fill canner (keep sauce and jars warm, as you will need to do a couple canner loads when using half-pints-see how to water bath can here).
- Process both pints and half-pints for 35 minutes in a boiling-water canner.
- Remove to a towel-lined surface and let sit undisturbed for 24 hours before checking seals, labeling and storing in a cool, dark place.
Notes
Nutrition
Your Questions Answered
Yes, I do that all the time. Just keep all the measurements halved exactly.
No – fresh herbs are low acid and the recipe is based off the tested Ball canning recipe that uses only dried herbs so it would be a safety issue with the ratios of low-to high acid off.
Also for cooked and canned products like this, dried herbs hold their flavor better (some fresh herbs actually turn bitter when cooked and canned).
Nope, those are both low acid ingredients and will throw off the ratios for safely canning and storing on a shelf. You can do that and freeze the sauce, though.
The 22 pounds would be the total weight fresh or frozen before anything is removed or drained. (Fresh and frozen weight will be the same, but if you’re coring before freezing, then you’d want to weight beforehand and write the pounds on the outside of the baggie.)
I have only just read that this year (2024) and I have been doing pouring off the juice for many years, as have many canners like me. I learned it from a master canner and recently read of another who also pours off the juice to save time cooking, too. All that to say – I haven’t found any research on this as to the amount of acid that’s potentially being lost (all tomatoes vary in acidity anyway) AND we add citric acid to each jar. I will continue to pour off the juice from thawing and keep the jars on a shelf and am totally comfortable with that, but you obviously need to do what you are comfortable with.
No, adding any thickener like paste before processing will create a new density that hasn’t been tested. You can cook the sauce down longer, but not add anything else before processing.
You can use a small amount of oil to sauté vegetables – as the original, tested Ball Blue Book Seasoned Tomato Sauce recipe that this was based on does (found on page 33 of this most recent version). Here’s a seasoned sauce that is online and uses some olive oil.
Yes, as long as there are only tomatoes listed as the ingredients. A 14.5 ounce can equals about 1 pound of tomatoes, so you’d need 22 cans.
You can do two things: reprocess the jars (open them, add to a pot and bring to a boil again before canning again) or simply store the jars in the refrigerator (which is what I do – it happens to everyone!).
Yes, you can totally to that! I often do things like that to break up preserving tasks.
I can’t say exactly, because it depends on what kind of food mill you use (some get more pulp/puree from the tomatoes than others), but I’d estimate around 17-18 cups which should cook down to the 14-15 cups to get the 7-8 pint yield.
More Easy Canned Tomato Recipes
- Water-Bath Safe Canned Roasted Tomato Sauce
- Addictive Tomato Chutney
- Nice and Thick Salsa for Canning
This recipe has been updated – it was originally published in 2014.
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This is the 2nd season I’ve canned this sauce and it is super! Last year had to use regular tomatoes because that’s what my sister/brother in law had at their farm (it was great) but this year she had romas. They made a wonderful, thick, delicious sauce that is great for pizza and if there are any leftovers from the 1/2 pint jar, to simmer with some green beans! Left out the sugar…didn’t need it. Thanks for a great recipe!
Agree that it does thicken so much easier with romas, but I’m like you – I use what I have to be able to make this. 🙂
I get the impression that you don’t season the sauce prior to canning. I would prefer to season it and then can it. I make spaghetti sauce and include the seeds (in my food processor) I never find a seed in my sauce. So easy. Also can you give an approximate cost for the sauce machine?
Odd – this is a seasoned sauce, Linda. I don’t keep up with the cost of the tools I mention, but there is a link you can click on that will take you to Amazon where you can see a current price (you won’t have to buy it or anything). Hope that helps!
My sauce did not thicker after two hours of simmering. I used fresh tomatoes. Any thoughts or suggestions?
I would just keep cooking, Melinda, turning the heat up a bit until it’s a consistency you like. Your tomatoes were probably juicier, which happens a lot with fresh tomatoes, especially if you’re not pouring off juice from frozen tomatoes first.
I blend spinach into the store brought. Is it safe to can it in this recipe?
No, Michele, spinach is low-acid so that would mess with the safety ratios. I’d blend it in when you use it like you do with the store-bought (great idea, by the way!).
I’m really looking forward to trying this recipe this year. My family loves homemade pizza and my husband gave me cast iron pizza pans for Christmas. They are amazing! Last year I made salsa and one tip that I thought was wonderful was slicing the tomatoes in half and placing them face-down on a cookie sheet cooking them in the oven and as they cool the skins shrink and come right off. It made the process go so much quicker!
What a great tip, Sharon – I’ll have to remember that!
How many quart jars would I use of canned tomatoes to make this…
Hmmm, that’s a question I haven’t gotten before, Tammy. Since it’s really important for safety reasons that you follow the recipe exactly with tomato products that will be canned to be shelf-stable, I think there’s no other way but to drain your tomatoes and weigh them. The acid ratio only works when using pound measurements for the tomatoes (you can cut the recipe in half safely). I know that won’t be perfect, since the tomatoes weigh differently after being skinned, cored, and canned, but that’s how I would do it.
Hello! I just came across your recipe and this looks delicious. With so many tomatoes from my garden this year this recipe was just what I needed. Would it be safe to prepare the tomatoe puree one night and put in the refrigerator and then make the pizza sauce/can it the next night?
Yes, you can totally to that Heather! I often do things like that to break up preserving tasks.
Click the arrow at the bottom for the full, printable recipe Bridgette – the article is just the tutorial walking you through the full recipe.
ABOUT WHAT YOU SAID ABOUT CHERRY TOMATOES NOT BEING ACIDIC ENOUGH TO MAKE SAUCE, ISN’T THAT WHY WE PUT LEMON JUICE IN EACH JAR? THE CANNING GROUP I’M IN SAYS THAT WE CANNOT BE SURE ANY TOMATOES ARE ACIDIC ENOUGH TO NOT ADD LEMON JUICE. I KNOW THEY CAN’T BE CANNED WITH PEELS ON.
Tomatoes are right on the edge of safe acidic levels, Melissa, so the lemon juice is to ensure they are acid enough to be water-bath canned. There are some cherry tomatoes that would be fine, probably, but some (I’m thinking of the pear types and the super sweet cherry types) are known to be low-acid, so I made a blanket statement. I would only use a ph-tested recipe if I were going to can cherry tomatoes since the lemon juice doesn’t automatically make everything safe to can.
I can’t find anything from USDA or Extension offices that say it is unsafe to can with washed peels left on (which I routinely do now with salsa and chutney since it’s so much easier!). Only that they may affect texture. In fact, the USDA says “Where recipes call for peeled or skinned tomatoes” (http://nchfp.uga.edu/how/can_salsa/salsa_ingredients.html) which seems to me that either are okay.
Can I freeze this sauce instead of canning
Yes, it freezes beautifully, LaRae.
Thank you
I canned tomatoes ladt year and got lots of pulp. Im using 7 quarts to this recipe without altering anytging…eccept a little extra sugar because I decided I don’t like the thyme in it. It seems like its making much more. Do you think it’s safe with still just adding the lemon juice to the jars?
It’s okay, Trish – maybe your sauce isn’t as thick? You will need to up the lemon juice/citric acid, though, for quart sizes: 2 TB lemon juice or 1/2 tsp. citric acid.
Would it be safe to assume that I could cut this recipe in half and the ratios would still be safe for canning? I have lots of ripe tomatoes from my garden but I don’t think I have 22 pounds.
Yes, you can halve the recipe safely Nicole – I do that all the time when I have smaller amounts!
Have you ever used grape tomatoes? I have more then i kmow what to do with!
Not in this, though I do have a roasted cherry tomato sauce that’s delicious. It’s only safe for freezing, though, since cherry tomatoes aren’t as acidic as regular tomatoes. Here’s a link to the recipe.
HI! When you say wash, core, and halve tomatoes, then bring them to a boil are you putting them in a pot with water??
No, as the tomatoes cook, they release all the liquid you’ll need to boil.
I made this recipie with these changes, extra garlic, fresh tarragon instead of basil, garlic powder, couple of large bell peppers, and all other listed ingredients. Tastes great can’t wait to make a pizza out if it!
Yikes, Alison! Sorry, but you can’t add lots of low-acid fresh ingredients like that (garlic, fresh tarragon and peppers) to a canned recipe like this and have it still be safe for water-bath canning. This is per the USDA and my local Extension Office. Did you pressure can this? If not, I would recommend that you keep these jars in the fridge.
Is pressure canning the answer to make this recipe safe if adding other fresh ingredients?
Probably, but even with pressure canning the recommendation is to use tested recipes, so that’s what I need to say. 🙂
How many cups of puree comes from 22 lbs of tomatoes?
It depends on what kind of food mill you use (some get more pulp/puree from the tomatoes than others) but I’d estimate around 17-18 cups which should cook down to the 14-15 cups to get the 7-8 pint yield.
Do you know if it’s safe to use fresh herbs instead of dried? Just curious. Thanks!
No, it’s best to stick with dried in canning, Emily. Even though they are a small amount adding more low-acid ingredients (fresh herbs) would mess up the safe acid ratio. Also, dried herbs are better at holding their flavor in applications like this (long cooking/canning). You can always add fresh herbs to the top of your pizza and get the best flavor there. 🙂
I forgot to put lemon juice in my first 7 pints. Will it be OK?
I’ve done that before, Naomi, and I keep them in the fridge to be safe. It probably is okay, but I just feel better erring on the side of safety. 🙂
My question is, I canned all my pizza sauces in pints and in the end it makes 2 pretty large pizzas. So we cant seem to eat 2 pizzas at the same time. How long is the pizza sauce good for after opening and being stored in the refrigerator?
I don’t know exactly, Nicole, but I’m pretty sure we’ve kept it for a number of weeks (maybe a month?), but I try to can in 1/2-pints or 12-oz. jars, as that will use it all up. What about making two pizzas, baking one and freezing the other unbaked for a quick meal later? You can use the larger jars as a way to force some batch-cooking. 😉
I know this is an older post, but I wanted to say “thank you” for it. I stated canning this year, mostly (and hopefully) as Christmas gifts. Pizza sauce was on my list, but I got so tired of reducing it that I gave up and have a few jars of what I hope is at least spaghetti-worthy sauce once I season it. You answered a few of my questions here, mostly in replies to comments. So many bloggers don’t answer, and I hope you feel like you’ve given something of value when you take time to do that. Makes me wish it weren’t mid-October and I could reasonably by enough good tomatoes to try again!
I’m glad you’ve found useful info here, Katie!! My goal in writing my blog has always been to help others where I used to be (I had to learn canning, too!) and share what I’ve learned along the way, so I make time to try and answer all questions as best I can- thank you for appreciating that. 🙂