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Blanch the Tomatoes

Start by plunging your tomatoes into boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes. This will loosen their skins, so they’re much easier to remove later. Then, rinse the tomatoes in cool water to stop the cooking process, and set them aside to cool and drain.

Remove the Skins, Stems, and Seeds

Once the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, remove their skins, and cut out the spot where the stems used to attach to the tomatoes (this is referred to as coring the tomatoes). Then, slice the tomatoes in half, and scoop out the seeds. Don’t worry if you miss some. A few left behind won’t hurt.

Saute the Onion and Garlic

Add about a 1/4 cup of olive oil to a large pot. Then, saute the onions and garlic until they’re soft (a few minutes should do it).

If you’d like to add carrots or peppers to your sauce, saute them along with the onions and garlic.

Combine All the Ingredients and Cook

Add the tomatoes and all of the remaining ingredients to your onion-garlic mixture, and bring the pot to a boil. Then, reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered until the sauce reaches your desired thickness. Stir frequently to keep the sauce from burning. This will take at least 2 to 3 hours but could take longer if there’s a lot of water in your tomatoes (non-paste tomatoes tend to have more water content, but so do tomatoes grown during rainy years).

Jar Your Sauce

Pour your finished sauce into jars. Use freezer jars if you want to freeze your sauce or canning jars if you’d like to can your sauce for shelf-stable storage.

Note: To safely water-bath can tomato sauce, you must add lemon juice to boost the acidity. Tomatoes aren’t as acidic as they used to be. Refer to the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s guidelines for complete tomato canning instructions and times.