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Canning spaghetti sauce turns an otherwise boring pasta night into a homemade feast! When you can your own, you’re able to add your own seasonings and customize it to your families taste, making it truly special.
Canning spaghetti sauce without meat is a delicious and useful way to make the most of a veggie-based diet. It’s great for stocking your pantry for ready-made meals that come together in a cinch!
Whether you’re using canned tomatoes from the store or fresh ingredients you grew yourself, there are plenty of ways to whip up a hearty dinner without resorting to meat.
Plus, this spaghetti sauce can be just as tasty, if not more so, than classic spaghetti sauce recipes that contain ground beef or other meats.
After preparing it and opening a jar later on, you can use this sauce as a base for other recipes (including those with meat), or serve it all by itself for a super flavorful meal.
Table of Contents
- Ingredients for Spaghetti Sauce Without Meat
- Canning Spaghetti Sauce Without Meat
- Altitude Adjustments
- Serving Home Canned Pasta Sauce
- Canning Spaghetti Sauce (Basic Recipe without Meat)
- For dial gauge pressure canners:
- For weighted gauge pressure canners:
- Pressure Canning Recipes
- Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes
Ingredients for Spaghetti Sauce Without Meat
This is a tested recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. It includes a number of low acid ingredients, namely onions, mushrooms and peppers, so it must be pressure canned.
Tomatoes seem acidic, but they’re also right on the borderline when it comes to acidity for canning. Since this recipe doesn’t include any added acidity (lemon juice, vinegar, wine, etc) it comes out less abrasive than many pasta sauce canning recipes, but it also means it’s not acidic enough for water bath canning.
If you’re not familiar with pressure canning, I’d suggest you read my beginner’s guide to pressure canning before you get started. If you’re looking for a beginner friendly pressure canner, there’s nothing so easy to use as the Presto Electric Pressure Canner. (You can read my instructions on how to use an electric pressure canner, as well as my full presto electric pressure canner review. Be aware that you cannot use an instant pot for pressure canning, it doesn’t work the same way.)
The ingredients for canning spaghetti sauce without meat are quite simple. To make a canner batch of 9 pints, you’ll need the following:
- 30 lbs tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped onions (optional)
- 1 cup chopped green/red pepper, or celery (optional)
- 1 lb fresh, sliced mushrooms (optional)
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 4 tbsp parsley
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 4 ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup olive oil (or vegetable oil)
- ¼ cup brown sugar (optional)
While you can omit the mushrooms, peppers, or onions from this recipe, if you choose, it is important that you do not increase the quantities of any of these. This will result in a recipe that is unsafe for canning. Do not, under any circumstances, add meat to this recipe as the canning time is not sufficient for a meat based spaghetti sauce.
You may use any kind of tomatoes you like for this sauce, but paste tomatoes (such as Romans or San Marzanos) tend to work the best and don’t usually require additional thickening after the canning process.
This recipe is safe for either pints or quarts, but if you choose to can quarts, you may have a bit of sauce leftover (it produces about four and a half quarts).
Canning Spaghetti Sauce Without Meat
Begin by washing the tomatoes. Dip them in boiling water for 30-40 seconds, or until the skins split and pucker. Then, dip in cold water or a bucket of ice and remove the skins.
I have a specific guide to peeling tomatoes for canning, if you’re looking for more details on the process.
Core and quarter the tomatoes. Then, boil them for 20 minutes in a large, uncovered saucepan.
Run The tomatoes through a sieve or food mill. I often use the food mill attachment on my kitchenaid mixer, but I’ve also used a small hand crank food mill, a manual countertop food mill and a chinois sieve. They all work just as well.
The main thing here is you’re removing the seeds and creating a smooth tomato sauce. If you don’t want the sauce to be smooth, and you want a few chunks, you can simply squeeze out the seeds by hand and then dice up the tomatoes. Don’t do that with more than half your tomatoes, as you do want a bit of sauce in with your chunks or it’ll end up too thick.
If you don’t have any food mill type things at home, you can seed the tomatoes and then put them into a food processor or blender, or chop them with an immersion blender…or for all manual you can just dice them as finely as you can with a sharp knife.
Saute the onions, celery, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic in oil until they are tender. Combine the vegetables with the tomatoes, then add the rest of the ingredients. Bring everything to a boil, then simmer uncovered until the sauce is thick enough for serving.
At this time, you may find that the initial volume of the sauce has been reduced – and that’s fine. It should be reduced to about 50% of its initial volume. Stir often while you’re cooking the sauce to prevent it from burning and sticking to the bottom of the pan.
While the sauce is cooking, prepare a pressure canner along with jars and lids. Follow the instructions from your canner manufacturer, but for most canners, that means adding 2-3 inches of water to the bottom of the canner, along with the bottom trivet and bringing it up to a simmer (180 F) for this hot pack recipe.
Once your sauce is ready, fill hot, sterilized jars. Leave 1” of headspace. Wipe the rims of the jars to remove food particles. Add the lids and bands to the jars, then tighten until they are fingertip tips.
Load the jars into the canner.
Turn heat to high, then allow the canner to vent steam for 10 minutes. Add the weight, then process the jars at 11 lbs pressure for a dial gauge canner or 10 lbs pressure for a weighted gauge scanner if below 1,000 feet in elevation. You will process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes. Adjust for altitude as needed (see below).
When the processing time has finished, allow the canner to depressurize on its own. Remove the jars, then allow them to cool for 12 hours. Check the seals before storing.
Altitude Adjustments
With pressure canning, the processing times stay the same at higher altitude, but the pressures change. Here are the altitude adjustments for pressure canning spaghetti sauce:
For dial gauge pressure canners:
- 0 to 2,000 feet in elevation – 11 lbs pressure
- 2,001 to 4,000 feet in elevation – 12 lbs pressure
- 4,001 to 6,000 feet in elevation – 13 lbs pressure
- 6,001 to 8,000 feet in elevation – 14 lbs pressure
For weighted gauge pressure canners:
- Above 1,000 feet – 15 lbs pressure
- 0 to 1,000 feet in elevation – 10 lbs pressure
Serving Home Canned Pasta Sauce
This spaghetti sauce is incredibly easy to serve out of the jar – simply heat it up, and you’re good to go.
You can add meat (typically, about half a pound of ground beef or sausage works well per pint, but you can adjust based on your personal preferences) or additional vegetables. If you found that your sauce was a bit on the thin side when you canned it, you may also add thickeners at this point (such as flour or cornstarch).
When it’s time to serve up your sauce, think about pairing it with some whole wheat pasta for a healthier choice – or even some fresh vegetables for an extra punch of flavor.
Canning Spaghetti Sauce (Basic Recipe without Meat)
Ingredients
- 30 lbs tomatoes
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 1 cup chopped red/green pepper or celery
- 1 lb fresh, sliced mushrooms
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 4 tbsp parsley
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 4 ½ tsp salt
- ¼ cup olive oil, or vegetable oil
- ¼ cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Wash the tomatoes. Dip them in boiling water for 30-40 seconds, or until the skins split and pucker. Then, dip in cold water or a bucket of ice and remove the skins.
- Core and quarter the tomatoes. Then, boil them for 20 minutes in a large, uncovered saucepan. Run the tomatoes through a sieve or food mill.
- Saute the onions, celery, peppers, mushrooms, and garlic in olive oil (or vegetable oil) until they are tender.
- Combine the vegetables with the tomatoes, then add the rest of the ingredients. Bring everything to a boil, then simmer uncovered until the sauce is thick enough for serving. Stir often to prevent burning. The sauce should reduce by about half.
- While the sauce cooks, prepare a pressure canner for hot pack, along with jars, lids and rings.
- Once your sauce is ready, fill hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1'' headspace.
- Wipe the rims of the jars to remove food particles. Add the lids and bands to the jars, then tighten until they are fingertip tips.
- Load the jars into the canner.
- Turn heat to high, then allow the canner to vent steam for 10 minutes.
- Add the weight, then process the jars at 11 lbs pressure for a dial gauge canner or 10 lbs pressure for a weighted gauge scanner. You will process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes. Adjust for altitude as needed.
- When the processing time has finished, allow the canner to depressurize on its own.
- Remove the jars, then allow them to cool for 12 hours. Check the seals before storing.
Notes
For dial gauge pressure canners:
- 0 to 2,000 feet in elevation – 11 lbs pressure
- 2,001 to 4,000 feet in elevation – 12 lbs pressure
- 4,001 to 6,000 feet in elevation – 13 lbs pressure
- 6,001 to 8,000 feet in elevation – 14 lbs pressure
For weighted gauge pressure canners:
- 0 to 1,000 feet in elevation – 10 lbs pressure
- Above 1,000 feet – 15 lbs pressure
Pressure Canning Recipes
Fill your pressure canner again with these simple pressure canning recipes:
Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes
Spaghetti sauce is basically a meal in a jar, all you have to do is add cooked pasta. If you’re looking for something that’s more heat and eat, try these meal-in-a-jar canning recipes instead:
Is the Oregano and Parsley in this recipe fresh or died?
I always use dried when I make it, but the NCHFP does not specify one way or the other.
I made this sauce today. It took a lot longer than I had anticipated to cook down to the consistency that I wanted. I used Beef Steak, Celebrity and Early Girl tomatoes, so they may have produced more liquid than a meatier tomato would have. I also had a problem getting the seeds out and the next time I make this I’ll remove the seeds when I core my tomatoes. Even though it was a bit difficult for me to make, it is well worth it. This sauce tastes AMAZING!!! I’ll never want store bought sauce again. Thanks so much for this recipe!
Those heirlooms can be a bit seedier than other varieties, and they have a lot more water, so yes, it’ll take a good bit longer to cook down when using those instead of meatier types. Glad you enjoyed it!
Can this be safely made without the oil?
Yes, you can omit the oil without changing the canning safety.
Yes, the oil is optional and isn’t needed for canning safety.
Can I use canned tomatoes? If so how much?
Yes, you can use canned tomatoes. In general, one 14.5 ounce can of tomatoes equals 1 pound fresh. Since this recipe uses 30 pounds of tomatoes, that’s a lot of canned tomatoes, and you might be better off working with bigger cans. In total, you’d need 435 ounces of canned tomatoes. A number 10 can is about 105 ounces, so you’d need about 4 no. 10 can of canned tomatoes to make this whole recipe.
Can both celery and bell pepper be used in this recipe? Or just one or the other?
You can use both, but the total amount cannot be more than 1 cup combined.
Can you use both green pepper and celery in this recipe, or just one or the other? (ie 1 cup bell pepper and 1 cup chopped celery)
You can use a mix, but the total amount can’t be more than 1 cup. So it’d be 1/2 cup green bell pepper and 1/2 cup celery.
Do you not use vinegar or lemon juice to prevent botulism?
Not in this recipe. Most sauce recipes and tomato recipes in general do add lemon juice or vinegar, but this is a tested pressure canning recipe from the National Center for food preservation that was specifically developed with that in mind so you don’t have to put added acidity into the sauce. They also have water bath canning recipes, and those you do need to add acidity. Some of their pressure canning recipes even include the added lemon juice…but not this one in particular. This is their basic recipe for canning spaghetti sauce without meat and the way it was developed it does not include bonus acidity, which is nice, it doesn’t come out too sour.
If I dice part of the tomatoes instead of milling them all, do I still need to remove the skins? When I’m making tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes I usually just dice them and cook them. Not sure if something about the canning would make that… undesirable? Thanks! I just discovered your website and I’m looking forward to trying some of these!
From a safety perspective, you don’t have to peel the tomatoes or mill them. It’s perfectly fine to use diced tomatoes (or part diced tomatoes).
Some people find that some varieties of tomatoes get bitter when you can the peels, and/or the peels are really tough when canned. That really hasn’t been my experience with most the types of tomatoes I’ve canned, but I’ve heard it from many people, so it just depends. It’s a personal preference thing, and you can do just as you say and dice the tomatoes instead. Enjoy!
I use a blender to puree the tomatoes then I use a mesh strainer. I pour in batches and use a spatula to mush the pulp through leaving seeds and any skin that didn’t fully come off tomatoes. Only sauce my kids will eat is home made. Crazy
Can I reduce the amount of salt for this recipe, or will that affect its shelf life?
Yes, you can reduce the salt in the recipe; that’s for flavor rather than preservation. Enjoy!
Can’t wait to try. Could.i cut the tomatoes, juice.them to remove seeds and skin and then cook them down? I’ve seen recipes like that.. I have a juicer.
Also about how many quart jars will this make? Thanks!
If the juicer is only removing the seeds and skins, then it may work. My juicer also removes the pulp though, which is most of the bulk of the tomato. What your really want here is a food mill or chinois sieve.