Pizza Sauce

We eat pizza sometimes once a week, if not every other week.  We very rarely order it, maybe a couple times  a year, instead we always make pizza at home.  I have a pizza stone that I put in my oven when I turn it on and I have a long wooden paddle to put the pizza in and pull it out with.  My kids prefer homemade pizza to purchased, and frequently tell me so!!  :-) Typically I have used whatever tomato sauce I have on hand for my pizza, but this year, with my abundance of tomatoes I decided to make my own pizza sauce, and we have already tired it out.  The verdict? Great!!  This recipe was taken and edited from my Ball Canning Cookbook. 

Makes about 6 pint jars.

13 cups of fresh plum tomato purée
1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder

Prepare canner, jars and lids.

Place half of the tomato purée in a large stainless steel saucepan.  Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.  Maintaining a constant boil, add remaining tomato purée, 1 cup at a time.  Stir in lemon juice, oregano, pepper, salt, garlic and onion powder.  Boil hard, stirring frequently until mixture is the consistency of a thin commercial sauce, about 15 minutes.  Remove from heat.

Ladle hot sauce into hot jars leaving 1/2" headspace, remove air bubble, adjust headspace, wipe rim…the normal canning processes.

Process for 35 minutes in a hot water bath.