Apr 18

Apr 18 Mom’s Canned Spaghetti Sauce (without the canning)

When I was kid growing up in Central Pennsylvania my parents owned a small patch of land below our house that we used as a garden. We grew corn, tomatoes, zucchini, green peppers (mangos -it’s a PA thing, look it up), cucumbers and cauliflower. We canned a lot of the food we grew so we always had our own corn or spaghetti sauce until it was time to harvest again!

When we moved to Ohio and ran out of the food we had canned, I had Ragu for the first time and thought it was disgusting! We tried several brands and never found one that matched the yumminess of my Mom’s sauce. A few years ago, my Mom and I began growing our own tomatoes, basil and green peppers and dug out that old recipe that we loved from my childhood. Wow! I can’t believe that we waited this long to make it again. We spent one whole day a week for about month and a half making batches of sauce from our tomatoes. It is 100% worth the effort, but because we are making the sauce from my backyard garden we can only make about 20-25 quarts with what we have grown. THIS IS NOT ENOUGH SAUCE for my husband and I to make it to fall the following year. So, I modified her recipe to allow me to make the sauce without canning fresh tomatoes, instead I use tomato sauce from the grocery store that is in a can.

This recipe makes 16, 1/2 cup servings. I divide the sauce into 4 freezer save containers and thaw as needed.

You will never need to buy jarred sauce again!

Mom’s Canned Spaghetti Sauce (without the canning)

Print Recipe

Author: Jodi Boatman Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total Time: 30 Minutes Yields: 16 Servings

Ingredients:

1 TBSP garlic, minced
1 small green pepper, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
4 oz olive oil
3 15 oz cans of Hunts tomato sauce
2 6 oz cans of Hunts tomato paste
1/8 C sugar, scant
pinch of salt
1/4 TSP basil, dried or fresh
1/4 TSP oregano, dried or fresh

Instructions:

Add olive oil to a large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add onion, green pepper and garlic. Cook for 10-12 minutes until soft but not brown.
Whisk in tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, salt, basil and oregano. Whisk until completely combined. This make take several minutes because the oil will want to separate.
Cook for 15 minutes to allow the flavor to develop.