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Pasta sauce recipes for canning are surprisingly hard to track down, especially if you’re looking for water bath canning recipes. It’s tough to know whether a recipe is actually safe and tested, and with a mix of acidic tomatoes and low-acid veggies, using a tested recipe really matters. I’ve tracked down every spaghetti sauce and pasta sauce recipe for canning that I can find, all from safe, tested sources.
Every year, we put up over 50 pints of homemade pasta sauce, using the same classic recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation that I’ve used for the past decade. This year, though, I wanted to try something different, and safe pasta sauce recipes for canning can be hard to find!
If you search the internet, there’s no real way to know if a recipe is a tested canning recipe, and that’s especially important when you’re working with something that has a mix of acidic tomatoes and low acid vegetables like pasta sauce (or salsa canning recipes, for that matter).
It’s a balancing act when you’re mixing low-acid ingredients (onions, garlic, etc.) and tomatoes, and without the proper acidity, it can be unsafe for canning. I get into the chemistry of this, and exactly how much acid you need to add, in my guide to acidifying tomatoes for home canning.
I poured over my collection of canning books and tracked down more than 30 tested recipes for canning pasta sauce, including 19 water bath canning recipes and 11 pressure canning recipes.
Recipes for Canning Pasta Sauce
Below you’ll find more than 30 tested recipes for canning pasta sauce at home, starting with water bath canning recipes and then moving to pressure canning recipes at the end.
I pulled all of them from reputable book sources, and then did my best to find links to the same tested recipes online. Most of the recipes are available online, be it through a university extension website or a safety-focused canning blog.
A few don’t have live links in the list below, and those are on my list to test and write up here (coming soon). If you know of other safe, tested recipes for canning spaghetti sauce, either water bath or pressure canning, please let me know in the comments so I can keep this list updated.
Pasta sauce is just one way to put up a tomato harvest. For everything else, from whole tomatoes to juice, soup, and salsa, see my full list of tomato canning recipes.
Pasta Sauce Recipes for Water Bath Canning
Believe it or not, there are so many spaghetti sauce recipes for water bath canning that I had to break the list up into two groups. Classic recipes, and then adventurous and unique recipes.
Simple Classic Recipes
The first group is what I’d call “classic” pasta sauce recipes. Just tomatoes with herbs, maybe some onions or garlic, but nothing crazy.
This is what most people think of when they’re looking for pasta sauce.
Basil and Garlic Tomato Sauce – One of the simplest pasta sauce recipes, this one uses just tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil and olive oil for a satisfying sauce that’s tested for water bath canning. A great place to start! (Source Ball Blue Book)
Oven Roasted Marinara Sauce – This one is simple, and darn good. If you’re looking for a go-to water bath canning marinara sauce, this is it. The tomatoes are oven-roasted, which adds flavor, reduces simmer time, and makes them easier to peel. It includes plenty of wine (either red or white), which really rounds out the sauce. (From The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, pg. 204)
Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce – With more garlic than any other pasta sauce recipe, this one is perfect for garlic lovers. It uses three whole garlic bulbs, along with onions, oregano and basil. (From Ball Canning Back to Basics, pg 247)
Roasted Rustic Pasta Sauce – A hard-to-find recipe that only appears in the manual for a Ball Canning Electric Food Strainer, this one uses onions, garlic and red wine, along with chili flakes for a bit of heat. (From Ball Canning Website)
Italian Style Tomato Sauce – I’m not a fan of carrots and celery in my pasta sauce, but I know that’s how many people prefer it. This recipe from Ball Canning includes both, and is still safe for water bath canning. (From Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, pg 363 and Bernardin)
Pizza Sauce (Ball Canning) – This one’s a simple seasoned tomato sauce for water bath canning, and though designed for pizza, it works wonderfully on pasta, too. (Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, pg 364)
Mrs. Wages Pizza Sauce – This one relies on adding a packet of Mrs. Wages Pizza Sauce mix to homegrown tomatoes. The sauce mix includes seasoning and citric acid for acidity, so it’s a simple fix, but you do have to buy the mix. This one is very similar to the pizza sauce above, just with a premade mix. (From Mrs. Wages)
Italian Seasoned Tomato Sauce – This one’s similar to simple pizza sauce, but it also includes onions and bay leaves. This is actually how many of my friends prefer their pasta sauce, simple, yet delicious. (Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, pg 362)
Simple Italian Tomato Sauce with Fresh Basil – This recipe uses ripe plum tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, and a bit of garlic for a simple yet classic Italian tomato sauce. It adds enough lemon juice to meet tomato water bath canning guidelines and comes together quickly, especially in small batches. (From Preserving Italy, pg 120)
Tomato Basil Sauce – Similar to the recipe above, this one comes from America’s Test Kitchen and uses red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice for acidity. That results in a better flavor in my opinion, and substituting balsamic is delicious too. (From Foolproof Preserving by America’s Test Kitchen, pg 206)
Chunky Style Tomato Sauce (Roasted Crushed Tomatoes) – Though it’s called “roasted crushed tomatoes” by Ball Canning, it’s really a chunky style pasta sauce with onions, garlic and olive oil. Instead of being processed smooth, it’s made with roasted and then crushed tomatoes for extra flavor and a more toothsome bite. (From the Ball Blue Book)
Passata – The base for most pasta sauces, passata just means tomatoes that have been passed through a food mill and then canned without anything else. This base will give you the flexibility to create any sauce you want in time for dinner. (From Food Preserving)
Unique Pasta Sauce Recipes for Water Bath Canning
These recipes go beyond the basics and include other ingredients like eggplant, peppers (sweet, roasted, pickled, or hot), mushrooms, and even vodka for a classic Italian vodka sauce base.
But even with those more exotic (and low acid) ingredients, all of these recipes are still tested for water bath canning. Most of these come from Ball Canning, but others come from university extensions and America’s Test Kitchen.
Arrabbiata Sauce – In direct translation, the name means “Angry” in Italian, and it’s a traditional fiery tomato sauce that brings both heat and complex flavor to the pasta. It’s made with pepperoncini, red pepper flakes, and paprika, giving it plenty of well-rounded pepper flavor. (From Foolproof Preserving by America’s Test Kitchen)
Vodka Sauce Base – Usually, vodka sauce includes tomatoes and onions, along with minimal seasoning (just basil and black pepper), but then adds in a good bit of vodka. Finished with cream, the sauce is a traditional Italian pasta sauce with a unique flavor. This vodka sauce canning recipe includes everything but the cream, which is stirred in when the sauce is heated and served. (From The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, pg. 207)
Roasted Eggplant and Pepper Puttanesca Sauce – This one’s a really unique pasta sauce that includes a lot of roasted eggplant and red pepper, as well as red wine, capers, olives, and anchovy. Ball Canning tested this one for water bath canning, and it works even with the anchovies because it includes so much red wine and balsamic vinegar that it basically pickles them. Somehow though, it doesn’t taste too acidic, probably because the eggplant and pepper mix works out really well with the acidity. (From The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, pg. 181)
Pasta Sauce with Mushrooms & Red Peppers – This one’s actually called “Cacciatore Simmer Sauce,” but in reality, it doubles as a simple roasted tomato sauce with mushrooms and red pepper that’s safe for water bath canning. If you want to use it as an actual cacciatore, you just slow-cook or simmer chicken in the sauce until done. Or, use it as I do, for a really flavorful water bath canning pasta sauce. (From The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, pg. 187)
Minnesota Mix – Though this one is technically a tomato cooking sauce with peppers, onion, and celery, it’s very similar to pasta sauces and works well as one. It doesn’t have any seasoning, just tomatoes and veggies, but you’re welcome to add dry seasonings to pasta sauces. (From the University of Minnesota Extension)
Spicy Creole Pasta Sauce – This one’s actually a simple tomato sauce inspired by creole cooking in Louisiana, but when you look at the ingredients, it’s got just about everything a standard pasta sauce has, plus a bit of dried chili peppers and chili powder. Since you’re allowed to substitute dry seasonings as you please, you can switch the chili out with a bit of basil to make it more “pasta-ish” or keep it as is. It even has balsamic vinegar, which I absolutely love in pasta sauce. There’s also a pressure-canning version of this sauce that doesn’t include vinegar. (From the Ball Blue Book of Canning)
Mild Creole Pasta Sauce with Green Peppers – Yet another version of creole sauce that works well on pasta, this one includes a bit of Worcestershire for some umami flavor, as well as green peppers (which can be substituted for any type of pepper you like, or skipped). Skip the hot sauce and cayenne for a milder sauce that’s more appropriate to pasta, but otherwise, the other seasonings are pretty well aligned with traditional pasta sauce. (Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving, pg 365)
Pasta Sauce Recipes for Pressure Canning
When you’re willing to bring out the pressure canner, you’re able to do a bit more with home-canned spaghetti sauce. Now, you can include things like meat, be it chunks of beef chuck, ground beef, flavorful pork sausage, or any other meat you have on hand.
With pressure canning, the recipes don’t need to be acidified nearly as much, so vinegar and lemon juice are less common (beyond what’s added for flavor). A bit of balsamic or red wine goes a long way toward bringing a pasta sauce to life, but these recipes don’t contain too much, and they’re not as acidic as the water bath canning recipes.
Spaghetti Sauce without Meat – This basic spaghetti sauce is made with onions, peppers, mushrooms and spices. It’s full of flavor, and much less acidic than pasta sauces for water bath canning. That’s because it’s designed for pressure canning, so it doesn’t have extra lemon juice added. This one comes out much closer to the classic low-acidity spaghetti sauce that most people are used to. (From the University of Georgia Extension)
Spaghetti Sauce with Meat (USDA) – This is the USDA’s meat sauce recipe, which only includes 2 ½ pounds of meat in a 9 pint batch. It has just enough meat for flavor, but it still pours and spreads like a meatless sauce. It’s not what I’d consider a hearty sauce, and if you want a serious meat sauce, choose one of the others below. (From the University of Georgia Extension)
Spaghetti Sauce with Meat (Ball/Bernardin) – This is the Ball Blue Book version that uses 5 pounds of meat for 6 pints. Unlike bolognese sauce, it only adds onion and green pepper, making it less veggie-focused. (From the Ball Blue Book of Canning, pg 106)
Bolognese Sauce – This beefy pasta sauce uses 5 pounds of ground beef for a 6 pint canner batch, making it more meaty than most. In classic bolognese style, it also includes diced veggies, making for a hearty meal. (From The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, pg. 296)
Hearty Italian Meat Sauce – This recipe includes slow-cooked beef chuck, pork shoulder, and sausage for one of the meatiest sauces out there. The book “Preserving Italy” calls it Classic Italian Meat Sauce and describes it as the definitive long-simmered version, richly flavored with beef, pork, and sausage. It’s canned for longer than most sauces, following the University of Alaska’s hearty soup canning protocol. You could eat this as a soup if you want, it’s that hearty, but I think it’s an epic meat sauce. (From Preserving Italy, pg. 122)
End of Summer Pasta Sauce – This one is almost a veggie soup, and it contains just about everything you’d find in the garden. With eggplant, cauliflower, green beans, and sweet corn kernels in a tomato sauce spiked with white wine, garlic, olive oil, basil, and thyme. It’s one of the few canning recipes I’ve seen anywhere that uses cauliflower (besides pickled cauliflower). (From The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving)
Vegerific Pasta Sauce – This is a tested recipe from Ball Canning that used to exist on their website prior to 2020. They took down a lot of recipes around that time, when they re-branded their website. Recipes removed at that time weren’t taken down due to safety concerns; rather, they were removed to streamline the site. It includes both eggplant and zucchini, giving it some interest, but not nearly as many veggies as the “end of summer” recipe above. (From the Ball Canning Website pre-2020)
Chunky Seasoned Pasta Sauce with Zucchini – This sauce includes big chunks of tomato, along with zucchini, onions and seasoning for a hearty veggie sauce. (From the Bernardin Website)
Tomatoes with Zucchini – Though not technically a pasta sauce, you can add seasoning and turn it into a simple zucchini sauce. This is one of the only tested canning recipes for zucchini, as summer squash tends to fall apart and become too dense to can on its own. It’s made more acidic with the addition of tomato, and it becomes a lovely veggie sauce (or sauce base). (From the University of Georgia Extension)
Tomatoes and Celery – Again, this is more of a sauce base or soup base, but it works well if you’re a big fan of celery. (From the Bernardin Website)
Creole Pasta Sauce (Pressure Canning) – Another one from the Ball Blue Book, this one skips the balsamic and has less added heat. Without the added acidity from the vinegar, it’s less acidic and needs to be pressure-canned. But with less acidity, many people prefer the flavor. (From the Ball Blue Book)
Pasta Sauce Canning FAQs
Yes, as long as the recipe is acidified and comes from a tested source. Simple tomato sauces with herbs and a small amount of onion or garlic can be water bath canned when you add bottled lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar to bring the acidity into a safe range. Heavier sauces loaded with low acid vegetables, and any sauce with meat, need to be pressure canned instead.
For water bath canning, yes. Tomatoes sit right on the edge of the safe acidity range, so every water bath recipe on this list adds an acid like bottled lemon juice, citric acid, or vinegar. Pressure canning recipes rely on heat and pressure instead, so they need little or no added acid beyond what is there for flavor.
Only in a pressure canner, and only with a tested recipe. Meat is a low acid food, so a meat sauce can never be safely water bath canned no matter how much acid you add. All of the meat sauces in this roundup, including the bolognese and hearty Italian meat sauces, are pressure canning recipes.
Stored in a cool, dark place, home canned pasta sauce keeps its best quality for about 12 to 18 months, and properly sealed jars are safe beyond that. Check that the seal is intact before opening, then refrigerate any opened jar and use it within about a week.
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I have made the vodka sauce and pressire canned it and it is delicious.
Good to know!