Pizza Sauce

The other day Lori asked me if she could get my recipe for bottled pizza sauce. I had to tell her that I don't really have one (I wing it) and just gave her the basics. So I decided I would document my latest batch to make up for my lack of recipe. Please forgive to hideous flash work....

I start with washing the tomatoes. I got these beauties in Hurricane from Mom and Dad. Their garden is about two months ahead of ours.

Then I run them through an apple/tomato grinder

I got this a little while ago from Matt's sister, Lisa, along with the idea to make pizza sauce out of our tomato bounty.

It removes the seeds and skins

from the flesh and juice

I run the whole tomato through the grinder. I only cut them up so it's easier to get them in the grinder opening.

Once I'm done grinding I start cooking the tomatoes. This batch is a 2-panner.

I chop up one large onion and a whole head of garlic

and add to the simmering tomatoes
and let it cook to reduce to a thick sauce--it usually takes several hours.
While it's cooking down, I have lots of time to wash the jars and lids.

I like to use half pints for pizza sauce

After an hour or so, I add the seasoning
This time I used dried oregano and basil, although I've used fresh in the past, and salt. I used about three teaspoons of each to start out.

I usually ask Matt to check the taste as it starts to thicken, to make sure my taste buds aren't playing tricks on me. So in the end, I can't really tell you how much seasoning was used. You'll just have to season it to your taste. Once it's cooked down enough I combine the two pots and finish cooking it until it's the thickness of pizza sauce. The two pots end up being about half a pot.
Then I fill the jars with the sauce

add the lids and rings and put them in the rack of a water bath pan
once the water boils, I lower the rack
and cook for 45 minutes

I ended up with 14 half pints of delicious pizza sauce. Yum!

Hope this helps, Lori.