Canning Can-Do: Italian Sauce

Italian Sauce will be great
on a cold winter evening!

I've been steadily canning plain tomatoes, but, since we eat a lot of spaghetti during the winter, I decided to put up some Italian Sauce.  Bear in mind that, if you add meat, you MUST process it in a pressure canner.  We don't mind the seeds in our spaghetti sauce, so I do not remove them.

Italian Sauce

1.5 gallons tomatoes (run through blender)
6 cups finely chopped onions
1 finely chopped sweet red pepper, seeded
9 T. minced garlic
2 T. Italian seasoning
2-3 T. salt (to taste)
1 t. freshly ground black pepper
2-3 T. olive oil

Place olive oil in a stock pot until hot.  Add everything but tomatoes and bay leaves and cook until onions are clear.  Add tomatoes and bay leaves and simmer until reduced by nearly half.

Pack into hot jars, add lemon juice, and process in water-bath canner as follows:

Size                Lemon juice            Processing time
Pint                    1 T.                    35 minutes
Quart                  2 T.                    40 minutes

Enjoy!