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!
✩ What readers are saying…
“This was delicious! I’ve canned quite a few tomato sauce recipes over the years, but this was the easiest and best I’ve tried.” – Laurie
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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!
Be Safe With Canning Tomato Sauce
When I searched the internet for recipes for canned tomato sauce I found quite a few “recipes” that didn’t list any specific amounts (“fill a pan with tomatoes, throw in a good handful of ______,” etc.) but still gave instructions for water bath canning with the addition of citric acid.
Recipes like this are NOT considered safe by the USDA – adding citric acid to a concoction that is full of low-acid ingredients (olive oil, onions, garlic, fresh herbs and sometimes peppers), does not make it shelf-stable with boiling-water canning, especially when they’re not even measured amounts (see this article for more information).
I know that people have canned this way for years, but in my opinion, it’s just food and never worth even a possibility of sickness. (Note: there’s a little more flexibility with sauces canned using a pressure canner, but it’s still recommended that you use a tested recipe.)
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!
Reader Raves
“It was all I could do from pouring bunch in a soup bowl and diving in. Fabulous flavor.” -Diane
“This is SO delicious! We use the resulting sauce to make a sort of instant tomato soup – add broth, maybe some cream, simmer a few minutes and have a bowl of summer to enjoy.” -Cathleen
“Great recipe, I have been canning for years, and found this to be an excellent and flavorful recipe. Major upside, it kept my kitchen much cleaner than when blanching to remove peels, and seem to waste a lot less “juice”. It will also make your kitchen smell a bit like heaven!” -Dawn
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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Safe Water Bath Canned Roasted Tomato Sauce
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
Nutrition
Your Questions Answered
I have gotten quite a few questions over the years after publishing this recipe in 2015 which I’m listing here in case you have some of the same questions.
Yes! I’ve done this and it’s perfectly fine since you’ll heat the tomato sauce before adding to the jars.
No, unfortunately peppers are a low acid vegetable so it would mess with the ratios that make this safe for canning.
You can add dried chili flakes, but no fresh chilis (or other fresh ingredients).
Adding fresh low-acid ingredients like this would make this sauce no longer considered safe for canning ( it alters the acid ratio from the tested recipe). You can always add them when you’re going to use it.
Yes.
Even though they seem less acidic and more sweet, according to what I’ve read you can use yellow tomatoes the same as red, following all the same guidelines (adding lemon juice or citric acid).
Yes! It’s best to have the weight of the tomatoes before freezing (weigh and write on outside of freezer bag), though you can weigh when frozen, too. (I used to think they weighed more frozen, but have read that they actually don’t.)
Unfortunately, it’s not safe to add tomato paste unless the recipe has been tested for it since it thickens the sauce which may affect the amount of time needed for processing.
When I’ve had sauce that wouldn’t thicken (well, in the amount of time I had, lol), I will note on the lid to add tomato paste when heating it.
Yes, you can add as much as you want as sugar is just for taste and wouldn’t affect the acid ratio.
Yes, you can use canned tomatoes! There might be a slight reduction of quality (every time produce is canned, the quality goes down some), but it’s perfectly safe.
No, it’s not safe to use fresh lemon juice and boiling wouldn’t help. It’s because fresh lemons vary in acidity and bottled is uniform. That’s why I choose to use citric acid – I don’t like the preservatives in bottled lemon juice (though you can use the frozen variety if you can find it to avoid that).
Fresh herbs are low acid and affect the tested ratio. If a recipe isn’t tested for pressure canning then I can’t recommend it. I’d probably find a pressure canned recipe to make with correct pressure needed for the jar size and sauce.
They also don’t really hold their flavor after being boiled and canned (and some even get bitter) – dried are much better for that. There aren’t too many recipes tested with fresh herbs for these reasons.
The salt is for flavor only so you can lessen or leave it out without affecting the product safety.
Yes! Though your yield may be affected – I’d think you’d get more since pureeing concentrates sauces more.
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.
Disclosure: affiliate links in this article will earn commission based on sales, but it doesn’t change your price. Click here to read my full disclaimer and advertising disclosure.
Hello!
Love your recipes, thank you! I just wanted to ask why all the (not just yours) water bath recipes for salsa are for 15 minutes for 1/2 pints in the water bath because we add vinegar, lemon or lime juice. But, when we make roasted tomato sauce and we add lemon, vinegar or citric acid we still have to process for 35 minutes and nobody says how long for 1/2 pints but I assumed 30?? Are we not brining the acidity level down to the same point? Because I have checked mine with a ph meter and they are both in the low 3’s? Just wondering 🙂 TY
From everything I’ve read, it’s because there is a significant amount of acid added to salsa (vinegar or lemon juice) in contrast to the tablespoon we use in tomato sauce. There are no tested salsa recipe with quart jars, though I assume they would require more processing time if there were. There is also the factor of density – maybe the tomato sauce is thicker and requires longer to process all the way to the center of the jar?
Do you weigh tomatoes before cutting or after?
It depends on what the recipe says – if it’s “23 pounds washed and cored tomatoes” I’d weigh after coring. This recipe is simply “23 pounds tomatoes” so weigh them and then proceed with the recipe which has you prep them in the first step. Does that make sense?
I have just made a batch of water bath tomato sauce. I did not measure the tomatoes. Using fresh washed herbs from my garden, and sautéed onion& garlic in olive oil. Organic salt and a little sugar. Also put 1 tbs. Bottled lemon juice in each pint. Water bath canned it for 40 min and all jars and all jars sealed.
My question is is this bat ch safe??
According to the National Center for Home Preservation, no, your cans aren’t considered safe. Without measurements there’s no knowing what your high acid (tomatoes, lemon) to low acid (onion, herbs, garlic) is, which is why we are advised to follow tested recipes only adjusting only dry ingredients or low to low (for example, using all onion instead of onion and peppers in a recipe). Sealing in a canner will not make a recipe like this safe, unfortunately.
However, you can store these jars in the fridge and use them in the next few months or you could open them and remove enough to leave a 1-inch headspace for expansion and freeze them!
If using frozen tomatoes- do you thaw them first then put them in the oven?
I’ve never tried this, but I would probably thaw them at least partially to make the cooking time go quicker.
I like the simplicity of this recipe but would recommend that the onion amount should be given by weight (especially since it’s such a low-acid food). 3 cups roughly chopped vs 3 cups finely chopped is not the same thing. I’m fretting over this sauce now wondering if I’ve put too much onion in.
This recipe is based on the tested recipe from the Ball Blue Book – I only changed the cooking method and added a few dry herbs. The tested recipe used cups of chopped onion, so that’s what I used. You do not need to worry about the onions affecting the recipe if you kept to all the amounts and used citric acid or lemon juice.
After roasting do you discard the juice that is on the sheet pan?
No, add the juice to the pot as it’s part of the acidity of the tomatoes.
Could you use a slow cooker?
For what part? The cooking down? I’m not sure how this would fit in a slow cooker, as I haven’t tested it. To be honest, I stay away from long cooked tomato sauces in slow cooker since the one time I did it, it tasted off, like burnt or something weird. I wondered if it reacted to the seeds or something?
Maybe the yield is only 7 pints when you remove all skins and the seeds. I kept them on, used the Vitamix to puree the tomatoes and other vegetables, and got 13 1/2 pints after they cooked down.
Other factors-
-About half of my tomatoes were Roma or other paste tomato.
-When roasting the tomatoes, a large amount of tomato juice collected on the baking trays. I poured contents of the trays into a colander, then poured the juice into my stockpot. Boiled that until it reduced by more than half, before adding in the roasted pureed tomatoes/vegetables. That saved a lot of simmering time, and helped prevent scorching.
Thanks for these tips, Rhonda!
Hi! This recipe looks wonderful. I’m wondering why I cannot replace dried herbs for fresh herbs in the sauce. Is it something that would make us sick if I did it?
Thanks for any help!
Yes, that’s the recommendation from the National Center for Home Preservation and extension agents across the country – fresh herbs are low acid and will mess with the ratio of low-to-high-acid ingredients, potentially causing an environment that could grow bacteria in storage. It’s erring on the side of safety, so that’s why I specify only dry, since the tested recipe I adapted the cooking method from used dry herbs.
Just an FYI – fresh herbs don’t hold well in longer cooked things like sauces, losing their flavor faster than dry, which is why many are added in the last minutes of cooking. So you can always add fresh (or frozen) herbs when you’re heating the sauce for that fresh herb flavor. 🙂
Hi Jami,
This is my second year canning this sauce. It is wonderful! I use it for so many things, but our favorite is to make your zucchini meatballs, then throw some frozen meatballs into this sauce and heat up. It is amazing! I am pressed for time right now, so I want to freeze my tomatoes and make the sauce later. I will weigh first and mark the bags as you suggested. My question is what to do when it comes time to make the sauce. Do you thaw the tomatoes first? I have read that if you run them under water to thaw them that the skins come right off. I wasn’t sure if the skins need to be on for the roasting part. Do you thaw yours first? If so, how? Thank you!
I’m so glad you like this great sauce, Brenda! There are a couple ways you can use the frozen tomatoes. I like to let them thaw in the bags overnight because the clear liquid separates and I can clip a corner and remove all that, which reduces the cooking time by a LOT. However, I have an electric sauce maker that I just add the pulp and skins to, so I don’t need to worry about the skins. If you need the skins removed, I would try running them under water to slip the skins off while frozen and then put them back in the bags to thaw to be able to remove the liquid (the main benefit, in my mind, of using frozen tomatoes!). If you don’t mind cooking longer, you can remove the skins and throw in a pot to start cooking. 🙂
How would I adapt this to a pressure canner? I am new to canning, but would love to try this recipe! Thank you!
I don’t know – I don’t use a pressure canner and all the tested recipes for tomato sauce are for boiling water canner. Does your pressure canner booklet have the pressure and time for the size jars you want to use for a tomato sauce? That would work here.
Is there a way to do without onion or lemon juice (allergies) Thank you
You do not need the onion – it’s there for flavor.
You do need the lemon juice for safe shelf stability after canning. Can you do citric acid? That would be the best substitute for the flavor.
If you can’t do either, then vinegar is you only option, though you have to use more of it, so the flavor will be affected. Here’s what the National Center for Home Preserving says: “Four tablespoons of a 5 percent acidity vinegar per quart may be used instead of lemon juice or citric acid. However, vinegar may cause undesirable flavor changes.”
This was delicious! I’ve canned quite a few tomato sauce recipes over the years, but this was the easiest and best I’ve tried. I did the math to reduce the amount of everything for 5lbs that needed to be put up of tomatoes from my little container garden. It was a mix of large-ish cherry tomatoes and slicers. It made just barely 3 pints, but they were thick and delicious. I’m going to u-pick lots more tomatoes from a local farm and make a full canner of quarts.
Oh, thank you Laurie for your great review! It is a great sauce to have on the shelves, so getting more tomatoes is a good idea. 🙂
Doing a double check…23 POUNDS makes 7 PINTS? Around here with good tomatoes at 3.59 a pound that’s over $12 bucks a pint? Is that right?
Yes, with tomato sauce it takes a lot of tomatoes. I’ve always used home-grown tomatoes so I haven’t priced them per pint.
Actually roasting tomatoes for water bath canning is nothing new. It’s called confit, and I’ve water bath canned many jars of delicious confit tomatoes. I’ve got to admit, though, it took a lot of research to feel comfortable about what I was doing because like you I found too much conflicting information.
Now, rather than canning roasted tomatoes though, I want to can sauces. And even though the canned confit hasn’t killed me at this time, for sauce, I’m more comfortable following a well researched recipe, which I believe yours is. It reads smart. Thank you.
Thank you, Judy!
Could I use cherry tomatoes in this? Or a mix of cherry and other tomatoes?
Sure!
Can you safely add green bell peppers to this recipe and still can it?
No, unfortunately peppers are a low acid vegetable so it would mess with the ratios that make this safe for canning.
Hi Jami,
I made a variation of this today, using a few different recipes. I did something kind of weird and didn’t weigh my tomatoes until I had already started… So I don’t have an accurate measured amount of tomatoes. I did aprx. 1 cup onion and 1 clove garlic, no oil, salt, or spices. The yield was 9 pints and 1 qt.
I am guessing I did over 20 lbs based on my yield. I added 1/4 tsp citric acid to the pints and 1/2 tsp to the qt.
Am I overthinking it to worry?
Since you seem to have a lot more tomatoes than low acid (just the one cup of onion and 1 clove garlic), you should be okay with the citric acid added! I wouldn’t worry about it if I were in your shoes, but I’d remember to weigh next time before. 🙂
Jami, is it safe to add tomato paste for canning this wonderful sauce? My tomatoes were extra juicy, and it’s been simmering for hours with little reduction or thickening. This is the third year I’m making this sauce. I even taught myself to can from your post.
Thank you very much!
Wow, I’m so thrilled that I helped in your canning journey, Pam!
Unfortunately, it’s not safe to add tomato paste unless the recipe has been tested for it since it thickens the sauce which may affect the amount of time needed for processing.
When I’ve had sauce that wouldn’t thicken (well, in the amount of time I had, lol), I will note on the lid to add tomato paste when heating it.
In step 2 where you are washing, cutting I half and squeezing, what do you do with the juice and seeds that are squeezed out?
I just compost them!
Can we add sugar to this recipe? If so, how much would be safe?
Yes, you can add as much as you want as sugar is just for taste and wouldn’t affect the acid ratio.