Now that you know how to increase your tomato harvest by ripening your green tomatoes indoors and you know the easiest way to can your tomatoes, I promised I would share what to do with your canned tomato puree.
We use our home-canned tomato puree to make tomato sauce for spaghetti, for pizza, for lasagna, and more. We never buy spaghetti sauce from the store. We also use tomato puree to make tomato soup, but we’ll save that for another day.
There are many different variations, so I’ll give you the basic tomato sauce recipe and let you run with it.
Tomato Sauce (from homemade tomato puree)
- 1 quart Tomato Puree (bottled, canned, or fresh)
- 2-3 Tbsp Flour (alternatively you can use dehydrated summer squash to thicken)
- 1/2 Tbsp Parsley
- 1/2 Tbsp Oregano
- 1/2 Tbsp Basil
- 1/2 Tbsp Salt
- 1 medium Onion, chopped (optional)
- 2 cloves of Garlic (optional)
- 1/2 lb ground beef (optional)
If you want meat in your sauce, then you can start by browning the ground beef along with a medium onion and a some garlic, if you like. If you stretched your ground beef with veggies and froze some for later, this is a great occasion to use it!
If you want to use onions and no meat that’s fine, too. Just use a tablespoon or two of butter (or oil) to saute your onions and garlic until the onions are clear.
Pour your quart of tomato puree into your sauce pan. Add your flour and spices before turning on the heat. Be sure all the flour is mixed in without any lumps before you heat the sauce. Bring the sauce to a light boil and simmer for a couple minutes. Sauce will thicken more as it cools.
The amount of flour needed will vary slightly depending on the jar of tomatoes. Three tablespoons is generally enough, but if you want to thicken the sauce more after it has already been heated it, ladle out a half cup or so of sauce. Cool it down and add more flour. Once it is mixed in, incorporate it into the sauce.
If you are using dehydrated squash to thicken, just keep adding the squash until the sauce reaches the consistency that you want. The summer squash is so mild, that it won’t affect the flavor, just add extra nutrient goodness!
Use it just as you would store-bought pasta sauce (spaghetti, lasagna, pizza, you name it!). I could seriously eat this stuff by the spoonful!
- 1 quart Tomato Puree
- 2-3 Tbsp Flour
- ½ Tbsp Parsley
- ½ Tbsp Oregano
- ½ Tbsp Basil
- ½ Tbsp Salt
- 1 medium Onion, chopped (optional)
- 2 cloves of Garlic (optional)
- ½ lb ground beef (optional)
- If you want meat in your sauce, then you can start by browning the ground beef along with a medium onion and a some garlic, if you like. If you want to use onions and no meat that’s fine, too. Just use a tablespoon or two of butter (or oil) to sautee your onions and garlic until the onions are clear.
- Pour your quart of tomato puree into your sauacepan. Add your flour and spices before turning on the heat. Be sure all the flour is mixed in without any lumps before you heat the sauce.
- Bring the sauce to a light boil and simmer for a couple minutes.
- Sauce will thicken more as it cools.
- NOTE: The amount of flour needed will vary slightly depending on the jar of tomatoes. Three tablespoons is generally enough, but if you want to thicken the sauce more after it has already been heated it, ladle out a half cup or so of sauce. Cool it down and add more flour. Once it is mixed in, incorporate it into the sauce.
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Would it work just as well with cornstarch instead of flour?
Yes, I’m sure corn starch would work just fine. You would probably only need half the amount of cornstarch, as it is a more powerful thickener than flour.
How much sauce does this recipe make?
I made this last night with the addition of Italian sausage and sliced mushrooms. I loved the tip about the flour to thicken. I had always been hesitant to can spaghetti sauce b/c of the added flour potentially being a recipe for disaster!! So this was a great solution – thanks! I found that I had to add a lot more seasoning than what you mentioned. I added garlic salt, pepper, seasoning salt and Italian seasoning. Maybe I’m just old and my taste buds are shot, but that seemed to do the trick! Thanks for posting!
its very easy recipe for home made tomato ketchup. i am also tomato ketchup lover I’ll make it at this weekend through this recipie.
I want to learn to make chunky garden sauce, do you have a recipe for that? I love that spaghetti sauce.
this is so yummm .. easy to make .. keep sharing.
Where did the “jar of tomatoes” come from???
(Not in list of ingredients!)
Hi James! It’s the first ingredient in the list– 1 quart of tomato puree. 🙂
Can this be canned with no meat? If so how long would you water bath it?
I haven’t canned the tomato sauce at all (with or without meat). I just can the tomato puree and then make the sauce when I need it. I would use a tomato sauce recipe specifically for canning since you want to make sure you have the acidity right. Canning tomatoes the wrong way can be bad news.
Make this tonite have so many tom some spaghetti thank you info
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Wouldn’t you need to add water since Tomato sauce is thinner than tomato purée? Personally I prefer a thinner sauce in some recipes.
That’s a good question. If you’re using commercially canned tomato purée, which is pretty thick, you’d add water to get to your desired consistency. Blending fresh tomatoes makes a much thinner puree, and you actually need to boil off a little water when making the sauce. If you used fresh tomatoes, and then canned or bottled them yourself, the amount of time you let them boil before putting them into bottles determines the thickness, and you’ll add water or boil longer while making the sauce as needed.
Making this for 150 people…thank you so much…
This was amazing. Easy and fun to make. It was yummy.
Hi. I’m making a lasagna recipe and don’t want to use store-bought tomato sauce. But I also don’t want to add any salt. So I’m wondering how important the salt factor is to the taste of your recipe. Is it going to make a critical difference if no salt is used? Thanks
Well, without salt it will taste salt-less. If you’re on a low salt diet, you might be used to the lack and not even notice.
Why not just try it with a small batch? If you don’t like the result without salt, you could always add it after the sauce is done, or share it with a neighbor =). Taste preference is so individual I don’t think I could ever tell you how much of a difference having no salt would make for you!
If I make too much can this be stored? If so, refrigerator or freezer?
Yep! You can refrigerate it for a couple days (remember there aren’t any preservatives, so it won’t last a long time) or freeze it for as long as you want!
Yum! Thanks for sharing on The HomeAcre Hop! I hope you can join us again today! Merry Christmas!
I adore homemade tomato sauce. AFter I made my first batch, I could never go back to the jarred stuff.
Better than store bought! Thanks for HOWTO! (And gorgeous photo!)
Yep! It’s cheaper and healthier and tastes better too 🙂