Heirloom Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Pressure canning spaghetti sauce delivers the best of summer all winter and keeps your dinner table safe. Lori Dunn

I use a lot of spaghetti sauce and tomato sauce, so I can enough to use at least 1 quart per week. I only grow heirloom tomatoes because they are disease resistant and have outstanding flavor.

My favorite is called Super Sioux. It is a medium-sized, high-acid tomato with loads of flavor. It was developed by the University of Nebraska in 1920 for high productivity in heat and drought conditions. If that works for you, give them a try. If not, there are literally hundreds of heirloom tomatoes, and I am confident that you can find one (or more) that will thrive where you live.

I guarantee that once you taste an heirloom tomato, you will never go back to store-bought. Plus you can save your seeds.

To make this recipe as a tomato sauce, just leave out the herbs and garlic. I use fresh herbs, but you can substitute dried herbs. Simply reduce the listed amount by half.

If you are using low-acid or modern hybrid tomatoes, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice to each jar to raise the acid level sufficiently to water-bath can. If you are pressure canning, this is unnecessary.

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Heirloom Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

20 pounds heirloom tomatoes
Garlic
Parsley
Basil
Oregano
Salt
*Lemon juice

Cut ends off of tomatoes and cut into chunks. Fill blender 3/4 full with chunked tomatoes (do not peel). To blender, add 1 clove (not the whole bulb) sliced or diced garlic (or 1 teaspoon dried), and 2 tablespoons each of chopped fresh parsley, basil and oregano. Blend until all chunks disappear. Pour into large stockpot. Repeat until all tomatoes are used.

Simmer sauce on medium heat, stirring occasionally until it reaches desired consistency.

Ladle into jars (hot, sterilized if using water-bath canner), and add 1 teaspoon salt to each quart or 1/2 teaspoon to pints. (*If using low-acid or modern hybrid tomatoes, add 1 tablespoon lemon juice to each jar to raise the acid level sufficiently to water-bath can. This is unnecessary if pressure canning.) Leave 1-inch headspace. Wipe rims with clean, damp paper towel, and place boiled lid on the jar and tighten band fully.

To process in pressure canner, process pints at 7 pounds pressure for 20 minutes, quarts at 12 pounds of pressure for 15 minutes, or process in water-bath canner for 45 minutes.