Pizza is such a great recipe that everybody enjoys, and you need the best ingredients for it. So here is how to make a recipe for homemade pizza sauce recipe with fresh tomatoes for canning.
Pizza sauce does not get the recognition it deserves like the other ingredients, such as the toppings on the pizza or crispy crust.
However, if you look into it, the pizza sauce is arguably the best part of the pizza in terms of flavors. It is the one responsible for blending all the ingredients’ texture and overall taste.
We are so used to having the pizza sauce in a jar that we just buy from the supermarket. When it comes to making one, it takes a lot of work and other considerations to make it great.
You will need a lot of effort to find the freshest and best ingredients for making just the pizza sauce. You need to blend it well with the other ingredients that you are planning to use.
To help you make the process just a little bit simpler, we have here a recipe for a pizza sauce that you can do and store for days, so you always have a fresh one ready to use.
Table of Contents
What You Will Need
This recipe is very simple, and you will have all the ingredients that you need available. However, the only challenge is that the tomato season can jumble up the schedule.
You will need to find the freshest tomatoes for them to last longer. So if you have time the season of tomatoes perfectly, you will have an advantage in making this pizza sauce.
Frozen tomatoes will do, but for this recipe, I prefer having fresh ones just to be sure that the pizza sauce will be made with the best ingredients and preserve it longer than most recipes.
The other ingredients are more about the seasonings of the recipe. Spices such as salt, dried basil and oregano, black pepper, and garlic should be easily available in your kitchen.
Other spices or ingredients such as sugar, lemon juice, or pepper flakes are completely optional. Remember that the pizza sauce should not have a very complicated taste to it.
I used about 20 Roma tomatoes for this recipe since I planned to store the pizza sauce. So you can adjust that number by how long you want them to be stored.
Ready some jars that you can use for the canning process. Ensure that they are squeaky clean and place them in hot water to make sure that they get sterilized before using them.
Procedure
Step 1: Prepare The Tomatoes
While it might seem very simple to just wash the tomatoes, you will need to be very thorough. This is especially important if you bought the tomatoes from the supermarket.
There is a high chance that the tomatoes are sprayed or applied to some form of preservative if you did. That is why you need to make sure that you remove all of those chemicals.
Get a bucket of water and then mix some vinegar into it. Place all the tomatoes in the bucket, and one by one, clean the surfaces on all sides by scrubbing them lightly with your fingers.
Place the cleaned tomatoes on a lined basket with paper towels to dry them a little bit. Once you have finished washing the tomatoes, cut them in half and prepare your cooking pot.
Step 2: Cook The Tomatoes
Place the washed tomatoes in the pot and turn the heat to high. Bring the water to a boil, remove the tomatoes from the water, remove the pot from the stove, and throw the water away.
Get a strain and then push the tomatoes in with a spoon. This will remove the skins and the seeds from the tomato puree to have a more consistent and relatively thinner sauce.
You do not need to purely puree the tomatoes by this time, as it is only a way to start the sauce. Prepare a larger pot for the next cooking process and then get the other ingredients ready.
Step 3: Cook The Pizza Sauce
Place the pot on the stove and let it dry before putting the olive oil in. put the minced garlic and onions in the pot and sautee them for about 5-10 minutes or until the onions have become soft.
Just before the garlic and onions start to caramelize, pour the tomato puree into the pot. Add all the spices and seasonings to the mixture, and then turn the heat to medium with the lid open.
Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat. Let the pizza sauce simmer for 30 minutes with the lid off while you prepare the other appliances that you will use for the blending or puree.
Step 4: Blend And Cook Again
Get your blender, and then wait for the pizza sauce to cool down a little bit. Once it is ready, pour the pizza sauce into the blender in batches and then blend it until the pizza sauce is smooth.
Once you have blended all the pizza sauce into a smooth mixture, put it back into the pot and let it cook at medium heat. Let it simmer until it reaches the desired consistency for the pizza sauce.
When the pizza sauce reduces to 1/4 or 1/3, it is all up to your preference. This process will usually take somewhere between an hour or two, so just let it simmer with the lid off.
Stir the pizza sauce occasionally to prevent the bottom from burning. If you have a thin pot, you should stir more often, as the pizza sauce will tend to stick to the bottom of the pot.
Step 5: Canning The Pizza Sauce
Prepare the jars by adding the citric acid or lemon juice to each clean and warm jar. Get the pizza sauce and carefully fill the jars with the pizza sauce to the top, leaving a 1/2 inch allowance.
The headspace of 1/2 inch is important to let the air rise a little bit inside the jars and expand the cap space. Put the lid on and then place the rings to seal the jars of pizza sauce.
Place each jar in the canner rack and then repeat the process with the other jars. Process both the pints and half-pints in the boiling-water canner for about 35 minutes and wait for it to finish.
Once the canner finishes processing the jars of pizza sauces, remove the jars from the canner and then let them sit on the counter with a towel placed on the counter or table’s surface.
Let the pizza sauce stay on the counter for 24 hours undisturbed. After one day, check if the seals are in good condition and then label the jars before storing them in a cool dark place.
If the jars are in the best condition and their seals are working perfectly fine, then the pizza sauce can last up to one and a half years in the storage area without opening them.
How Long Does The Canned Pizza Sauce Last Once Open?
As said before, the pizza sauce will last for a very long time if you have a proper jar for storage. However, once opened, the pizza sauce will start to decline in taste and overall quality.
To determine how long it can last, it involves a lot of factors. Keep the jar and make sure that the seal still works when you want to use the rest of the pizza sauce for the next few days.
Once you open the pizza sauce, cover it after use and then put it in the fridge. By doing this, the pizza sauce will have a prolonged shelf life of up to four days only in the refrigerator.
Beyond four days and you will have a pizza sauce with no even consistency. It will also be affected in terms of the flavor and the texture and can sometimes be unsafe to use.
You can opt to freeze the pizza sauce after opening it as it will take longer before it is unsafe to eat. By freezing the pizza sauce, you will extend the shelf life up to 3 months.
Conclusion
Pizza sauce is such a great part of the pizza, and you need the best ingredients to make one. Get the freshest tomatoes on the market, or get one from your garden if you have one.
You can edit the spices for this recipe, and you can add or remove some of the ingredients. Just use the basic tips to make sure that you prepare and cook the sauce the right way.
Use the best jars, and make sure that you clean and sanitize them thoroughly. This will help prolong the pizza sauce’s shelf life, so you have some of it ready for the entire year!
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