Canning Pureed Tomatoes for Pizza Sauces and Soups

"Ma and Laura picked the tomatoes…

There were enough ripe tomatoes to make almost a gallon of preserves."

~ Laura Ingalls Wilder, The Long Winter

One of my favorite things to can is tomatoes. They are so useful! This is the way I prepare tomatoes for an easier pizza sauce. Many recipes have you boiling down the tomatoes for eternity (I just boil down right before I use, see recipe below) and seeding the tomatoes by pressing through a sieve or food mill. I skip both steps (a rebel for sure). What's so bad about the seeds anyway? We eat them all the time in our salads. 

Note: For more details on canning procedures themselves, visit the links on the bottom of this post.

Wash your tomatoes. Roma are the best for sauces because there is more "flesh" but in the end, any kind of home grown tomato is tastier than what you will get in the store. 

Now, score the bottom of your tomatoes with a knife. Basically, carve an "x" at the bottom of each one. This will allow the peels to slip off easily once you submerge them in some boiling water.

Next, submerge your tomatoes in boiling water for about 30 - 45 seconds (no more than a minute). Follow up by dunking them in an ice water bath. 

While they are chilling, begin removing the skins. When that is complete, core all the tomatoes and begin to puree them in batches in your blender. Pour all of the pureed tomatoes into a large stainless steel stockpot. Do not use aluminum as a horrible reaction will occur because of the acidity of the tomatoes. It actually leaches from the aluminum. Now, bring the tomatoes to a boil.

While you are waiting on the tomatoes, add 1 TBSP lemon juice, 1 TSP sugar and 1/2 TSP fine sea salt to each of the sterilized canning jars. Ladle the hot, tomato puree into each jar and leave 1/4 inch head space. Wipe each rim and place your sterilized caps and lids onto each jar. Process in boiling water bath for 45 minutes. 

Note: I also can this in the taboo, half gallon jars. The trick is having a pot tall enough to cover them by two inches for the boiling water bath. I add 2 TBSP lemon juice, 2 TSP sugar and 1 TSP fine seal salt into each jar (leaving 1 inch head space). Process for 1 hour in boiling water bath. The reason I am comfortable with canning in the half gallon jars is that all my tomato products get boiled again before we actually consume them (like when they simmer for the sauce or stews).

To Make Pizza Sauce: Add a few tablespoons of olive oil to a frying pan and saute some finely chopped onions (I usually do one onion per quart of tomatoes). Cook a few minutes and add some freshly minced garlic (I usually do about 4 cloves per quart of tomatoes).  When onions are soft, add a quart of your canned pureed tomatoes to the onion/garlic mixture. Let this all simmer together for about 20-30 minutes or until most of the water has cooked out and you have the desired consistency for a sauce. Next, add a few shakes of Italian seasoning and sugar or honey (I usually do 1 TBSP sweetener per quart of tomatoes). Simmer five more minutes to let flavors blend. Be sure to let the sauce cool before spreading on pizza dough. This is so tasty and rewarding to know that you provided for your own meal! Visit here for a healthier homemade pizza dough recipe.

Variation: Saute in more vegetables such as bell peppers and carrots along with the onions. When the mixture is cooked, place in blender and puree for that "Ragoo" style, smooth sauce that children love.

Note: These pureed tomatoes are also excellent to add to autumn soups and winter stews for a tomato based flavor.

Secret to a Happy Home

"The priceless blessing of a happy home can be

won only by struggle, endurance, and self-sacrifice."

~Froebel

"Greater love hath no man than this,

that a man lay down his life for his friends."

~ John 15:13

Or family…

Healthier Homemade Pizza Crust ~ Printable Recipe

This pizza crust is a snap to make and is a lot healthier (without compromising taste) than the average recipe.

Add into your mixer the following:

• 1 tbsp. "instant" yeast (I use saf-instant) mixed with 2 cups of warm water (let sit a minute together in a glass measuring cup before adding to mixer)
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 6 tbsp. oil (such as olive oil, grapeseed oil, or sunflower)

Then add one of the following flour combinations to your mixer bowl (Both taste good, it just depends on what you have available.):

• 2 cups of regular bread flour
• 3 cups "white" whole wheat flour (found at Trader Joe's)

OR

• 3 cups regular bread flour
• 2 cups "regular" whole wheat flour

Mix on medium speed for about five minutes, until dough starts to clump together and is no longer sticking to the sides of the mixer. If the dough is still too sticky and sticking to the sides, add a bit more flour and mix until you get the desired result. The dough should resemble above (clumped together like).

Coat a large bowl with baking spray and drizzle some olive oil into bottom of bowl (about 2 tbsp.). Place your dough inside and flip it over in order to grease both sides of dough with oil. Place a cloth on top and let dough rise in a warm spot for an hour (or until doubled in size). 

Then, divide dough into three equal parts and press into three round pizza pans. I have fallen in love with this dough roller which is such a time savor but you can also just use your hands and press into place.

Now, it is time to decide what you want to put on your pizzas! We like to start off with some homemade pizza sauce but you can use your favorite.

It is really tasty to sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of the sauce for an authentic flavor. This is your choice as it is *your* pizza.

We like to sprinkle veggies on top which have been sautéed in olive oil first (grilled is good too). Our favorite is an onion and bell pepper combination along with lots of mozzarella (Grilled chicken and mushrooms are a favorite too but we didn't have any this time). I like to use freshly shredded cheese as the pre-shredded ones have yucky anti-caking agents in them which also hinder the cheese from melting nice and golden-like.

Now, bake the pizzas in a 450 degree oven for 10 - 14 minutes depending on how dark and crispy you like it. If you are baking two at one time, then switch pans on oven shelves half-way through baking time to ensure even baking. If you are baking one at a time, then check the pizza after 7 minutes. 

Pizza is ready when bottom and sides are golden and cheese is starting to brown.

Serve with a crispy, fresh green salad and a smile :)

Idea: Any leftovers can be frozen individually for quick, to-go lunches.

Note: This recipe can be doubled to make 6 round pizzas.

* Here is a printable recipe should you like to add it to your Recipe Book *

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.

What is Copywork and Why? ~ Charlotte Mason Series

"Children should transcribe favourite passages. ––A certain sense of possession and delight may be added to this exercise if children are allowed to choose for transcription their favorite verse in one poem or another... But a book of their own, made up of their own chosen verses, should give them pleasure."

~ Charlotte Mason, Victorian Era Home Educator

Victorian Era, home education advocate, Charlotte Mason, encouraged copywork for children as a means of influencing many parts of their education. Though she was not the inventor of copywork, she did recognize the wonderful results it yielded. She taught this concept focusing on the use of short but precise lessons using virtuous verses. Ms. Mason also placed emphasis on the quality of work instead of the quantity. 

"A sense of beauty in their writing and in the lines they copy should carry them over this stage of their work with pleasure. Not more than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour should be given to the early writing-lessons. If they are longer the children get tired and slovenly." ~ Charlotte Mason

What is copywork?

Copywork is simply the act of copying selected passages, word by word, punctuation by punctuation mark, with every attention to detail into a composition book, student journal or binder. The student is encouraged to "check" their own work since they are given the perfect sentence to start with (this also aids their proofreading skills).

"Secure that the child begins by making perfect letters and is never allowed to make faulty ones, and the rest he will do for himself; as for 'a good hand,' do not hurry him; his 'handwriting' will come by-and-by out of the character that is in him..."

~ Charlotte Mason

"Perfect Accomplishment.–– I can only offer a few hints on the teaching of writing, though much might be said. First, let the child accomplish something perfectly in every lesson––a stroke, a pothook, a letter. Let the writing lesson be short; it should not last more than five or ten minutes. Ease in writing comes by practice; but that must be secured later."

~ Charlotte Mason

Home School by Benjamin Wu

Why Copywork?

One benefit of copywork is that the children are receiving lessons in writing by the best tutors in history! When we have them copy verses from the Bible, they are exposed to the greatest thoughts of wisdom ever recorded. When they are copying sentences by classical authors, they are learning how the great minds of literature manipulate words, use grammar and construct sentences. As they mimic their thoughts on paper, they are being influenced by wonderful styles of writing (or composition) while practicing their penmanship at the same time. 

Another positive to copywork is that the more words the children copy, the more they are exposed to them and spelling is learned in a natural way. How many times do we play Scrabble and realize that a word just doesn't "look right"? It is because our mind visually absorbs the spelling of a word since we have seen it so many times on paper.

This is the beauty of daily copywork, it is constant exposure to rich vocabulary, spelling, and proper punctuation. The mechanics of a sentence are presented while they copy the beautifully crafted verses in well written novels such as Black Beauty, The Secret Garden and Heidi. Once children are comfortable with writing, the future will naturally inspire them to begin their own personal compositions/creative writing.

We have so much fear that we must teach our children, step by step, every grammar doctrine in order to provide them with a proper education but Charlotte Mason had her own ideas about this...

"Our failure as teachers is that we we place too little dependence on the intellectual power of our scholars, and as they are modest little souls what the teacher kindly volunteers to do for them, they feel that they cannot do for themselves."

~ Charlotte Mason

What a burden was relieved from my mind as I read that quote! The thoughts of a dull classroom with a pointer stick in my hand saying, "today class we are going to learn about sentence diagramming…" evaporated and I was free to enjoy teaching my children language arts/grammar through beautiful examples of written works instead of dull and dry textbooks. There has been much fruit from this method in our homeschool and I encourage you to try this if you are frustrated with your current system.

To take copywork to the next level, begin dictation with your older child. Read to them the passages and see if they can correctly write them with all the proper punctuation and so forth. Younger children can be given dictation but with the commas, etc., included in the reading.

Lastly, if we are presenting our children with wonderful thoughts and ideas to pen on paper, copywork is also a gentle character building tool. 

What to Copy?

Bible verses, hymns, nature quotes, poems (or a few verses from poems), historical quotes, recipes, favourite passages from literature, lists (such as Ten Commandments, Fruit of the Spirit), etc… Anything wholesome that will delight the child, educate the mind and feed the imagination with "things of good report". 

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." ~ Philippians 4:8

I do encourage you to mix up your selections in order to accommodate their tastes and interests as well. Older children may be able to choose their own verses providing they are of good quality and well structured in thought. 

Where to Start?

Younger children should begin by copying the letters of the alphabet or their name. Once that is mastered to some degree of quality, provide them with short sentences and let it progress into longer passages. If you are a bit shy to this idea or are limited on time to provide passages to copy, you can start by using an already prepared copywork book such as Copywork for Little Boys, Copywork for Little Girls, Lessons in Manners for Copywork, Copywork for Older Girls, and Copywork for Older Boys. For our favorite supplier of Charlotte Mason-Style copywork booklets, visit here {affiliate link}:

For further reading about the educational ideas of Charlotte Mason, visit here.

For our free copywork booklets, visit here.

“This method (copywork) is not new or experimental. It is an old and proven method, probably as old as writing itself. Great writers have used it and you have already used it with your child. But once children reach school age, we tend to shed the natural method for a slower, artificial method. Our society thinks grammar books or Language books somehow carry the secret of good writing, but few of them do.”

~ Dr. Ruth Beechick, A Strong Start in Language

This post may be shared with some or all of the following link-ups: The Art of Home-Making Mondays, Modest Mom Monday's, Monday's Musings, Make Your Home Sing Monday, Good Morning Mondays,  The Scoop, Titus 2sdays, Titus 2 Tuesdays, Roses of Inspiration, Tuesdays with a Twist, Raising Homemakers, Wise Woman Link Up, Homestead Blog Hop,  Wow Us Wednesdays,  Coffee and Conversation, Homemaking Thursdays, Home Sweet Home, Our Simple Homestead, From the Farm Blog Hop, Front Porch Friday Blog Hop, Awesome Life Friday Link Up, Five Star Frou Frou Friday, Simply Natural Saturdays and Clever Chicks Blog Hop. Thank you lovely ladies for hosting these.