With my family all on vacation a few weeks ago, I had the job pleasure of taking care of my mom’s and sister’s gardens for a week.  I harvested carrots, cucumbers, green peppers, and tomatoes.  LOADS of tomatoes!  Not wanting my fam to miss out on their crops, I decided to preserve the deliciousness in a marinara sauce. 

Garden = sauced!

It was a big job and took all day.  Cleaning, peeling, chopping, measuring, cooking, pureeing, canning, cleaning…this sauce was truly an effort of love and an experience of joyful learning.

Many pounds of tomatoes to prepare. Peel, chop, de-seed...to easily peel tomatoes, start with a sharp knife and score the skin of the tomatoes crosswise.

Boil water and put a few toms in at a time for 20-30 seconds.

Remove with a slotted spoon and dip in ice water to stop cooking. The peel comes off easily!

Peeled and ready for chopping. Ugh what a chore. Too messy for pictures...

Farmer's market onions. (You must get the chopper, click here!)

Good for drying dishes and peppers.

Celery, with the amazing chopper that you must get.

Garden fresh carrots.

The trusty canner pot.

See the veggies? Yum!

Nathan experienced breadstick love.

And marinara porn.

Clarebear’s Garden Marinara (Canning Method)

Adapted and inspired from Canning Marinara Sauce and Tany Spaghetti Sauce for Canning.

8 lbs ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped (weight post preperation; I used a mix of varieties from my family’s garden)
1 tsp olive oil
10 oz onions, finely chopped (3 medium)
10 oz celery stalks, finely chopped (1 medium bunch)
10 oz green bell pepper, finely chopped (3 medium)
5 oz carrot, finely chopped (3 medium)
5-7 garlic cloves, minced
18 ounces tomato paste
1 bay leaf
1 ½ T basil
1 ½ T oregano leaf
1 T salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp marjoram
½ tsp cumin
2 T brown sugar

1. See list of canning supplies .  See general canning overview.
2. See How To Peel Tomatoes Easily.
3. Heat the oil in a large non-stick pot.  Cook the onion, carrot, celery, green pepper, and garlic until tender, about 20 minutes.
4. Add tomatoes, paste, sugar, and spices. Stir to mix thouroughly.  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover partially and simmer for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally.
5. Remove from heat.  Once cooled slightly, in small batches, run half of the sauce through a food processor or food mill.  (Depending on your “chunkiness” preference, you may want to process more or less sauce.  Mine was pretty chunky, I processed about half.)   
6. Bring sauce and pot back to simmering and prepare to preserve sauce OR freeze or fridge the sauce instead.
7. Bring canner water to a boil.  Throughly wash 9 pint canning jars and lids, and place them (6 at a time) in the water.  Ensure the water level covers the caps on the jars.  Leave them in simmering water until ready to fill.
8. Bring the canner rack up and raise the heat to boil.  Take one jar out of the rack, draining the water.  Fill jar with simmering sauce, leaving ½ inch head space.
9. Remove a 2 piece lid from the hot water.  Wipe jar rim and lid with a clean dry cloth.  Screw the lid band down, just until resistence is met.  Set the jar into the rack and repeat from step 5 until all jars are filled.
10. Lower the rack into the canner pot and put the lid on.  Start a timer for 35 minutes and process the jars at a gentle but steady boil.   
11. After time, raise canner rack and carefully remove the jars, setting them on a dry towel to cool.  Do not jar, shake or tip jars.  Leave them be for 24 hours.
12. After jars have cooled, check lids for a seal by pressing on the center.  (If the lid pops, the seal didn’t take, so just put that in the fridge and eat it up first!)  Label and store sealed jars in a cool dark place.

What’s your favorite commercial brand pasta/marinara sauce?