Benefits of Home Canned Spaghetti Sauce
Are you looking to cut your dependance on store bought food? Do you wish to have a cost effective way to cut the grocery bill? Or maybe you are tired of feeding your family food that has many un-nameable ingredients in them. You also want to know what is going into the food you feed your family, ensuring that the food you serve them is rich in naturally occurring vitamins and minerals. This home canned spaghetti sauce fits the bill! Its rich in delicious summer goodness while also giving you the peace of mind knowing that what you feed your family is full of good quality ingredients that you put there your very own self.
All of the above reasons spur me to fill my jars for the winter, every single year. I love knowing I can pull delicious summer fresh goodness off of my basement shelves to feed my family well, even while the winter winds blow outside. There is such a great calmness and joy in knowing that you have ready meals at your fingertips - full of the rich vitamins and minerals found in summer produce.
Our Favorite Home Canned Spaghetti Sauce
This spaghetti sauce rivals Ragu spaghetti sauce without any added secret ingredients - just down home goodness in every single jar! Its our absolute favorite, and we've been making it for years now.
Missed the local tomato season? I've already used bought canned tomatoes and made it with those. Watch for tomatoes with only salt added, preferably sea salt or Himalayan salt. Most store-bought canned vegetables are picked in the prime quality and frozen or canned immediately. So, if you miss the in season tomatoes, you still can have delicious spaghetti sauce on your basement shelf that has only ingredients YOU put into it. And then if your family loves it, you know to source tomatoes from your garden or even a local farm stand in season and can up enough to last for the year!
Ingredients
- 8 quarts pulpy tomato juice
- 3 onions, chopped - ( 1 onion yields approximately 1 cup chopped onion)
- 3 peppers, chopped - (1 pepper yields approximately 1 cup chopped pepper)
- 2 c cane sugar
- 3 4 oz jars of mushrooms, chopped fine
- ½ c olive oil
- ½ c butter
- 3 tbsp salt - less if your tomato juice is already salted
- ⅓ c parsley flakes
- 3 tbsp paprika
- 3 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 ½ tbsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 1 ½ tbsp chili powder
- 1 ½ tbsp dry mustard
- 1 tbsp basil
- 36 oz tomato paste
- 4 oz parmesan cheese, optional
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients, except for the tomato paste and parmesan cheese.
- Over medium heat, bring to a slow boil, stirring often.
- Simmer for 1 hour.
- Add tomato paste and parmesan cheese.
- Stir very well.
- Ladle into clean quart jars, filling to within 1" of the top of the jar.
- Wipe the rims.
- Cap, and screw on rings.
- Pressure can at 5 lbs. pressure for 10 minutes.
- Let the pressure release from the canner all by itself, and let the canner it for 5 -10 minutes before removing the jars with a jar gripper.
- Tighten rings carefully after removing from the canner. If hot sauce boils out when you open the canner, close the lid and wait a bit more. Sauce and jars will be hot, so handle with care!
- Set the jars on your counter top on a tea towel for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, check the seals, take off the rings, and wash the jars and rings with hot soapy water.
- Ideally, write the year you made it on the lid with a sharpie marker, before storing in a cool dry place.
Tip:
Take a tip from my mom, and always wipe down your canning shelves before filling that section with this year's canned goods. That way you always have clean shelves to start out your winter with. Along with that, always store the freshest canned goods to the back. This ensures that you use the older stuff first, and you do not end up with years old canned goods sitting on your shelves! Rotate, always rotate.
How Long Can I keep Homemade Spaghetti Sauce?
Home canned spaghetti sauce holds for a few years in tightly sealed jars. My mom would always can enough for 2 years when she was canning tomato products. That way, if you have a lean year, you still have spaghetti sauce and tomato soup on hand. She would rotate what needs canning - sauce one year, tomato soup the next, etc., so that you don't end up having to do everything every single year. Some years I manage to accomplish that, and some years I don't. However, I always feel so rich when I have at least ONE year's worth of home canned spaghetti sauce on my shelves, and richly blessed when I manage to get TWO years' worth squirreled away!
What Do I Use Our Own Spaghetti Sauce In?
We love spaghetti sauce with pasta, in our favorite lasagna recipe, over stuffed shells, and any recipe that calls for a jar of spaghetti sauce, actually! We especially love spaghetti noodles served with the sauce over the noodles, along with shredded cheese and parmesan cheese, with a side of garlic bread and green beans. Sometimes I will also cook the noodles, pour the sauce over top, stir it, and bake it at 350 degrees for an hour or so, then add shredded cheese on top before serving. Spaghetti with home canned spaghetti sauce is always a comforting meal for my family to come home to when the winter winds blow outside.
Does This Look Overwhelming?
Does it look overwhelming to do everything in one day? Chop your peppers and onions before hand in the size batch you want to make, label and freeze them. You can even can or freeze the tomato juice prior to making the sauce. Wash those jars before you need them. Then one dreary November day when the house needs a homey smell, get all the ingredients together, and dump everything into your kettle. Bring to a boil, simmer for an hour, and jar up. It's that easy!
Then also plan an easy supper - like your freshly cooked spaghetti sauce over noodles with shredded cheese and parmesan cheese over top of that. Serve with a side of garlic bread, and green beans or a fresh salad, for a fast an easy supper.