Safe Water Bath Canned Roasted Tomato Sauce

Yes, you can make a water bath canned roasted tomato sauce safely and the flavor is still amazing! Use this recipe based on one from the Ball Blue Book for delicious roasted tomato sauce that is safe to preserve in a boiling water canner to be shelf stable. Having jars of this sauce in your pantry gives you amazingly easy weeknight dinners that capture that great summer tomato taste!

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I’m super happy to be able to share this canned roasted tomato sauce that’s safe for boiling water bath canning with you!

I spent a lot of time searching for a recipe to safely can roasted tomato sauce in a boiling water canner. I was looking for flavor similar to our family’s favorite Roasted Tomato & Vegetable Sauce for Freezing, to have some for the convenience of having jars in the pantry ready to go without thawing.

Spoiler: I couldn’t find what I was looking for. But I came up with a work around that is a keeper recipe for sure – taking a tested recipe and then adding the roasting step for the vegetables. It’s SO good!

Before sharing the recipe, though, I want to share what I found while searching and how I came up with this safe method because being educated more about canning is worth a couple more paragraphs!

Okay, off my soapbox! After all that searching, are you wondering how I came up with this boiling water safe canned roasted sauce?

Is This Canned Tomato Sauce Safe?

Good for you for questioning – we should definitely understand what we feeding ourselves and our families.

Here’s the deal: I searched and searched and couldn’t find any roasted tomato sauce recipe that was safe for canning tomato sauce in a water bath canner.

But then I wondered why I couldn’t just take the tomato sauce recipe from the Ball Blue Book that I’ve canned many times and instead of boiling the tomatoes, roasted them instead? All the measured ingredients would be the same, only the cooking method would change.

When in doubt – or questioning – use your extension service!

To make sure my solution would work I called the preservation hotline from our extension agency (Oregon State where I live) and asked them if they thought it would be okay to roast the vegetables instead of boiling. I told them I’d be sharing it with my site’s readers – and they okayed the new cooking method!

They just cautioned me to keep all the other low-acid ingredients the same and to be sure to include the addition of citric acid or lemon juice. Which I did, of course.

And guess what?

Roasting the tomatoes worked wonderfully and gave this sauce that lovely flavor that our favorite freezer sauce has. This is the sauce I’d been looking for!

How to Make Water Bath Canned Roasted Tomato Sauce

Gather your ingredients:

• Tomatoes: use any you have. TIP: paste tomatoes have less juice so you won’t need to cook the sauce as long to thicken and I find adding some heirloom tomatoes give a great depth of flavor so I use a combo.
• Olive oil: use only the amount listed – it’s important in canning to not increase this.
• Balsamic vinegar: this is optional, but give that amazing flavor we love about this freezer roasted sauce.
• Onions & garlic: use only the amount specified, do not increase. If you’d like more of these flavors, you can add garlic or onion powder to taste.
• Seasonings: this is where you can adapt the recipe – choose more or less as you’d like of the dried herbs. You cannot use fresh herbs, though. You do not have to use canning salt – you do need to choose a salt that has no additives, like a pure sea salt.
• Citric acid or bottled lemon juice: I prefer using citric acid because bottled lemon (which you have to use in canning) contains preservatives. Either work, though.

Step 1: Prep tomatoes for roasting. Halve all ingredients to work in two batches and divide all except tomatoes and citric acid between 2 or 3 roasting pans ( or what will fit in your oven). Wash and cut tomatoes in half, removing the cores and blossom ends – place cut side down in pans.

Step 2: Roast and remove peels. Roast the first batch about 40 minutes. Use tongs to remove the peels easily. Besides enhancing the flavor, the other reason I like to roast tomatoes for sauces is because I can skip the boiling-water-peeling step since it’s easy to just pluck the darkened skins off after roasting.

Even though it takes 2 batches of roasting for this amount of sauce (since I can only fit the three pans shown above in my oven at one time), it still takes less time and work than blanching and peeling tomatoes before cooking!

NOTE ON SKINS IN CANNING: Removing the skins is specified in the original recipe from Ball Blue Book, so that’s what I do, but I leave skins on my favorite salsa and addictive tomato chutney, so you might choose to leave them on here. I haven’t found research to say it will affect the acid ratio. Just be sure your tomatoes are really clean and we’re removing both the core and blossom end where any bacteria might live. As of 2024, I still haven’t found any studies about this – no matter what you hear from online influencers! I stick by my own research into this and the answer I got from an OSU Extension Agent I detailed in this salsa recipe.

Steps 1 and 2 basically replace the peeling and initial cooking part of the original boiled recipe with pans of roasted ingredients. After your ingredients are roasted, though, you do still need to bring it to a boil so it’s nice and hot for canning.

Step 3: Transfer to a pot and blend ingredients. After roasting, transfer everything into a large stockpot (this actually makes it easy to roast more pans to finish the full recipe – the first batch can wait in the pot for the second batch to roast). When ALL the batches are in the pot, use an immersion blender (the best!) or blender or food processor to make a smooth sauce.

Step 4: Cook down and can. Bring the sauce to a boil after blending and then cook until thickened, about an hour. While it’s cooking, prepare a water bath canner and jars. TIP: I like to have everything set up next to the stove (pictured above)- the tray contains the mess for easy cleaning. When time to can, add citric acid or lemon juice into each jar before adding the sauce. Process the jars according to the size – see the recipe card below.

NOTE on tomato seeds: we don’t mind seeds in the sauce and I do squeeze out quite a few when I’m prepping the tomatoes for roasting, but if you’d prefer a seedless sauce, you can strain the sauce after you’ve whirred it up – it’s up to you.

NOTE #2: I took the in-process photos above before I realized that we should add the other ingredients to the roasting pans first and then place the tomatoes on top of them. This makes it easier to pluck the skins off without losing any of the spices or other ingredients – live and learn!

Tools I use For this Recipe

• Food Scale
• Immersion Blender
• Stainless Steel Boiling Water Canner with this flat canning rack
• Stainless Steel Canning Funnel
• Stainless Steel Ladle
• Pint Mason Jars and Lids

Water Bath Canning Tutorial Video

Need review of how to can? Here’s a video on the simple steps for boiling water canning if you need:

Or you can go to this article and read the steps with photos.

Storage

Like any properly canned products, these will keep on a cool, dark pantry shelf up to 18 months. Always check the seal to make sure it is still firm and check for any visible signs of spoilage (very rare!).

I hope you enjoy this yummy sauce as much as we do!

I hope you enjoy this canned roasted tomato sauce! If you make it, be sure to leave a recipe rating and review so I know how you liked it!

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4.99 from 141 votes

Safe Water Bath Canned Roasted Tomato Sauce

A wonderfully flavored canned roasted tomato sauce that is safe to can in a boiling water canner to be shelf stable (adapted from Ball Blue Book’s Seasoned Tomato Sauce* and checked by preservation specialists at Oregon State Extension Service)

Prep Time1 hour hr

Cook Time2 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Canning Time35 minutes mins

Total Time3 hours hrs 55 minutes mins

Yield: 7 pints

1x2x3x

Author: Jami Boys

Click for Cook Mode

Ingredients

• 23 pounds tomatoes a variety of paste, heirloom and cutting provides the best flavor & consistency
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar optional, but adds amazing flavor
• 3 cups chopped onions
• 6 medium cloves garlic chopped**
• 2 tablespoons canning salt or pure sea salt (use a salt with no additives)
• 1 tablespoons dried oregano*** to taste
• 1 tablespoons dried basil*** to taste
• 2 teaspoons black pepper to taste
• 1 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes optional, but we love it
• Citric acid or bottled lemon juice see amounts needed for different size jars below

Instructions

• Heat oven to 425 degrees. Halving all ingredients to work in two batches, divide olive oil, balsamic vinegar (if using), onions, garlic, and dry seasonings between 2 or 3 roasting pans (what you have that will fit in your oven).
• Wash tomatoes, remove cores and blossom ends, cut in half and squeeze gently to remove some of the seeds. Place tomatoes, cut side down, on top of ingredients in prepared pans.
• Roast for about 40 minutes until most of the tomato skins are puffed and browned. Remove from oven and pluck skins off with tongs (it's okay not to get every bit).
• Scrape roasted vegetables into a large stockpot, set aside and repeat the prep and roasting with remaining half of ingredients (unless you are making just a half batch – then just proceed to next step).
• Using an immersion blender, whir roasted ingredients until smooth (alternately, you can scrape from the roasting pans into a blender in batches and then add to the stockpot). If you’d like to strain to remove seeds, now is the time for that, too, using a wire mesh sieve.
• Bring the smooth sauce to a boil over med-high heat, lower heat and then simmer sauce until it reaches desired consistency, stirring often, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or more depending on your tomato varieties. You can adjust salt or dry seasonings to taste at this point if you wish.
• Prepare a water bath canner, jars, and lids.
• Add 1/4 teaspoon citric acid to pint jars (1/2 teaspoon to quarts) OR 1 tablespoon lemon bottled juice to pint jars (2 tablespoons for quarts) and then ladle the hot tomato sauce into hot jars, one at a time with 1/2-inch headspace. Wipe rims, attach lids and place in canner rack.
• Process 35 minutes for pints and 40 minutes for quarts (if processing both pints and quarts together, use the longer processing time). Note: start the processing time after canner comes to a full boil and then adjust heat to keep a low boil for the timed amount.
• Turn off burner, remove lid and set timer for 5 minutes to let jars rest in canner. Transfer jars from canner to a towel-lined surface and let cool 24 hours. Check seals, label & store for up to a year.

Notes

*The current editions of the Blue Book do not have this exact recipe that is in my 10-year-old book, but it is still considered safe and was okayed by the extension office to use. 

**The tomatoes aren’t roasted long enough to fully roast whole garlic cloves, so you’ll want to chop them.

***Do not replace dried herbs with fresh, though you can increase or decrease the amounts given and add any other dried herbs you’d like.

This recipe can easily be halved or even quartered, depending on how many tomatoes you have.

High Altitude Adjustment: If processing at an altitude of higher than 1000 feet above sea level you’ll need to adjust the processing time according to this chart.

If you have any jars that don’t seal (which is rare!), store them in the fridge and use first.

 

Nutrition

Serving: 1/2 cup | Calories: 83kcal | Carbohydrates: 16.1g | Protein: 3.5g | Fat: 1.8g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 431mg | Fiber: 4.9g | Sugar: 10.4g

Did you make this recipe?Mention @anoregoncottage or tag #anoregoncottage!

More Canned Tomato Recipes To Try

• The Best Thick and Flavorful Salsa for Canning
• Canned Green Chilies & Tomatoes (aka, Rotel)
• Canned Pizza Sauce (from frozen tomatoes)
• Addictive Tomato Chutney

This recipe has been updated with larger photos and clearer instructions – it was originally published in 2015.

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