Sunrise Pizza Sauce; Canning a Mountain of Tiny Tomatoes

Home canned pizza sauce is a great, quick and easy way to use up extra cherry or pear tomatoes. This is a small batch canning recipe that can be whipped together with little effort. We decided to name this sauce “Sunrise” because of the bright orange color obtained from the varieties of tomatoes used.

This sauce was made from mostly yellow pear tomatoes, however any mix of tomatoes would work. My mother and sister both grew these tiny yellow tomatoes this year, and they both picked a ton of them. After weeks of canning tomatoes, my mother decided she she was sick of them. So, she unloaded these at my house. Processing tomatoes can be overwhelming work. But, I never get tired of summertime tomatoes. So, I happily accepted her gift.

I was going to make plain tomato sauce to just quickly get the tiny tomatoes put away. But, my oldest son wanted to help and he wanted to make pizza sauce. He said “Mom you need to tell the internet how to make pizza sauce.” So, here is a great recipe for delicious pizza sauce that is so easy a 4-year-old can make it. Mine did, and he will, hopefully,  be winning a blue ribbon for his Sunrise Pizza Sauce this week at our county fair.

Ingredients

Yields 2 pints

• 5 cups of milled/sauced tomatoes of any variety, ours were Yellow Pears and San Marzano.
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 3 cloves crushed garlic or 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf

Directions

• Remove any stems, cut slits in tomatoes and place on lightly oiled baking sheet.
• Roast at 400 for 30 minutes.
• Work roasted tomatoes through food mill or metal sieve(my kid’s favorite part).
• Put sauced tomatoes and all other ingredients in a pot and simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Clean jars and have them resting in a hot pressure canner. I use 1/2 pint and 1/4 pint jars for pizza sauce. The 1/2 pints are the perfect size for family pizza nights and the 1/4 pints are perfect for dipping sauces.
• When sauce has simmered down and is the desired consistency, ladle into hot jars leaving 1″ headspace.
• Process in pressure canner at 11lbs pressure for 15 minutes. Additional times may be needed for higher elevations.
• This sauce could be processed in a waterbath canner if garlic is ommited and properly acidified according to the process recommended by the National Center for Home Food Preservation.