This Tomato Sauce recipe will take you back to a time when the internet, Uber and Insta didn't exist – but tomato sauce tasted a whole lot better.
Remember what tomato sauce used to taste like?
You will once you cook up a batch of this!
Enjoy your homemade tomato sauce slathered on a meat pie, serve it with hot chips or store it away for your next sausage sizzle.
An old-fashioned Tomato Sauce recipe
I'm a long-time tomato sauce fanatic.
As a child, I had it with EVERYTHING. I refused to eat many things without it.
I remember Mum having to go to our neighbour's house one night to borrow a bottle of sauce because we'd run out and I had a meltdown.
I've never quite got tired of tomato sauce and still enjoy it, especially with hot chips or on a sausage sandwich.
One of my kids has inherited my tomato-sauce-loving gene, too.
And I always make sure we have a spare bottle of tomato sauce in the pantry.
So I was quite keen to test out this homemade tomato sauce recipe recorded by my great grandmother at least 80 years ago.
With a haul of lovely locally-grown tomatoes from my local farmer's markets, it seemed the perfect time to cook up a batch of Nana Ling's tomato sauce.
UPDATE - I've made this sauce many times since, and it's one of the most popular recipes on the blog!
Ingredients for homemade Tomato Sauce
To make this sauce, you'll need:
- tomatoes
- white wine vinegar
- salt
- caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- garlic
- ginger
- cloves
- allspice
- peppercorns
- cayenne pepper.
Some people also like to add an onion to this recipe.
I like to make it exactly as Nana Ling recorded it, without the onion – but each to their own!
Cooking up this Australian Tomato Sauce Recipe
Making this tomato sauce is quite simple once you've sourced some lovely, ripe tomatoes and checked to make sure you have all the spices and other ingredients on hand.
The other ingredients, vinegar and sugar, you probably already keep in your pantry.
How to make Tomato Sauce
Chop the tomatoes roughly and place into a large saucepan. Then add the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil.
The sauce takes around 2–3 hours of simmering to reduce. Keep a check on it and watch the how-to video to see the consistency of the mixture you're aiming for.
Given the variability of the tomatoes, it's difficult to give a precise cooking time.
Once cooked, there are two options to process the sauce.
Option 1 – Sieving the sauce
Then you just need to run the mixture through a sieve, pressing down with a spoon, to extract the beautifully rich and tasty tomato sauce.
Bottle it straight away in a sterilised bottle or jar and store in the pantry or fridge.
This is how the sauce is made according to Nana Ling's instructions and this is how I like to make it.
Option 2 – Blending the sauce
Many readers have commented that they simply blend the sauce in a food processor or chopper once it's cooked.
Many prefer this method, since it's much easier.
If you do opt to blend the sauce, just keep in mind that it may have a spicier kick to it given all of the spices are blended into the sauce.
The Tomato Sauce time machine
I hadn't realised how much tomato sauce had changed over the years until I sampled Nana Ling's tomato sauce recipe. A recipe she'd jotted down in her beautiful handwriting back in 1941.
One tiny taste and I was immediately transported back to my family's dinner table in the 1980s.
I could see our old dinner table covered with a seersucker tablecloth. I could also see Mum's hanging pot plant stand in the corner of the dining room (which fell down on the dinner table one night and saved me from eating a meal I wasn't particularly enjoying). And on the table was a glass bottle filled with deep red tomato sauce.
These days, tomato sauce seems brighter and thinner.
And it may be in a super convenient squeeze pack now, but the taste just isn't quite the same. It doesn't pack a tomato punch the way the good old-fashioned tomato sauce did.
If you want tomato sauce that's thick, full of tomato flavour and can even take you back in time, keep scrolling for Nana Ling's Tomato Sauce Recipe.
You can also find other wonderful condiments and conserves from the Cooking with Nana Ling collection here (and if you still have heaps of tomatoes, check out my Tomato Recipes collection).
Recipe FAQs
What are the best tomatoes for Tomato Sauce?
You really can use any type of tomato here, however roma tomatoes and other "paste" tomatoes that have fewer seeds are perfect for making sauce.
I also like to use heirloom tomatoes and have made this recipe up with cherry tomatoes when i had an abundance of those.
How to store Tomato Sauce
"Where do you store tomato sauce?"
It's a controversial question, indeed!
I store my sauce in the fridge once it's opened. Others store it in the cupboard. Which way is the right way?
Well, even the experts at Australia's Choice can't agree.
They say that tomato sauce is high enough in sugar and salt to be shelf stable, even after opening. However, bacteria is more of a risk in a warmer environment.
Some are willing to take the risk, saying cold sauce is a crime and impacts the flavour.
So, there seems to be no right and wrong.
If you're risk-averse and don't mind cold sauce, continue to store it in the fridge.
If you're a tomato sauce aficionado who insists on enjoying it at it's room-temperature best, go ahead.
Just keep in mind that if you are making homemade tomato sauce and are not familiar with how to properly can/preserve sauces, store in the fridge to be safe.
What do you store your sauce in?
Go for an airtight glass container to maximise it's shelf life.
Once you've opened it, you can pour it from there or transfer it to a squeeze bottle – yes, the ones we had in the 80s are still around today if you look hard enough.
Nana Ling's Tomato Sauce recipe
Keep scrolling for the tested and tweaked version.
Tomato Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ kilos tomatoes roughly chopped
- ⅔ cup white wine vinegar
- 3 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup caster sugar
- 1 clove garlic sliced thinly
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger grated (or ¼ teaspoon ground dried ginger)
- ½ teaspoon whole cloves (or ¼ teaspoon ground cloves)
- ½ teaspoon allspice (ground)
- 3 teaspoons black peppercorns
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 onion (optional, I personally don't add it in and it wasn't in the original recipe but some readers prefer this recipe with onion)
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring.
- Simmer for 2-3 hours, partly covered and stirring from time to time.
- Watch the video above in the post to see the consistency of the tomato sauce once cooked. If the sauce hasn't achieved the desired consistency, continue to simmer uncovered until it reaches the preferred consistency.
- Strain half of the mixture through a coarse sieve into a bowl, and then the other half. Use a spoon to push sauce through the sieve and extract as much liquid as possible. Discard solids.
- Alternatively, blend the cooked sauce in a food processor or chopper (but keep in mind the sauce will have a spicier kick).
- Pour hot mixture into a medium-sized sterilised bottle and seal.
- Store in fridge or a cool and dark place (depending on the process you used to can the sauce). If you are not familiar with how to properly preserve sauces, store in the fridge to be safe.
- Once opened, store in the fridge.
Angela gray says
I decided to make it in a 4.5 kg batch first as i only have a pan large enough for that amount!
Silly me! Thanks anyway.
Libby Hakim says
Hi Angela. Sorry I didn't get to your messages until now. Hope you enjoy the sauce!
Panda says
Amazing, love this recipe, thank you so much for sharing Libby 😊
I made this recipe and made my regular tomato sauce recipe at the same time for a comparison and loved your Nana Ling's so much more and will be using that from now on.
I adjusted it with less sugar to suit my taste and thank you to Troggy who posted about using honey, I'll try that next time!
I'll also do 2 batches another time, one with onion and one without as I'm curious to see what the difference will be!
Libby Hakim says
Amazing! Thanks so much for your feedback and rating. It's a fun recipe to experiment with. Enjoy 🙂
Jenny Lloydd says
Hi Libby,
I wonder if it's blended Finley you'd still end up with pieces of skin if the tomatoes aren't peeled? Im keen to try this recipe, your grandmother's hand writing reminded me so much of my own
Thanks for sharing.
Libby Hakim says
Hi Jenny. Plenty of people just blend the skin up and include - see the comments for examples. And, yes, the handwriting is so lovely 🙂 Happy cooking!!
Angela gray says
I love the sound of your recipe. I have 8 kgs of tomatoes. Can you help me with quantities for the ingredients please?
Thanks.
Lesley Brown says
Omg, this is the closest I can get to my grandmothers/mother's recipe. Thatused glacial acetic acid instead of vinegar. I used to have a pharmacy that would make a very small bottle up for me after they stopped stocking it on the shelves. Not available now. Anyway, thanks so much for your recipe! I'm going to double the mixture next time I make it
Libby Hakim says
You're welcome! So pleased you found something close to your family recipe. Happy cooking!
Steph says
Unfortunately this had way too much sugar for my liking. I only put half the sugar the recipe required, thinking I could add more in if needed, but even 1/4 cup of sugar made it much to sweet. Being able to adjust the sweetness is part of the reason I wanted to make my own tomato sauce. I now wish I had started with no sugar and gone from there. Unfortunately I don't have enough tomatoes to double the mixture. Note to readers if you like and are used to sweet tomato sauce from the supermarket you will probably be happy with this recipe but I think I'll be trying some other recipes even though there are some good favours from the Spices, which I adjusted a bit also.
Me says
Made this this morning with the original recipe (no onion). It’s delicious with just a hint of warmth from the cayenne. Will be making a lot more of this in the future
Libby Hakim says
Awesome! Thanks for taking the time to rate and review. Enjoy your homemade tomato sauce 🙂
Phillip Wotherspoon says
the best tomato sauce ever but i left out the cloves too overpowering in the first batch i made
Libby Hakim says
Thanks, Phil - and pleased you could adjust to suit your taste 🙂 Enjoy!
Carolyn says
Libby would it be wise to make this in the slow cooker?
t says
I see no reason why I must download yet another piece of software in order to print the recipe. I cancelled the download and missed out on the recipe.
Libby Hakim says
You shouldn't have to download software to print out the recipe. You may have to join the newsletter - but you can do that and just unsubscribe straight away if you don't want to to receive weekly emails.
Lisa says
Hi
I’m about to make this sauce and wondered if a reduction in sugar will make a big difference?
Or possibly a different sugar?
Libby Hakim says
Hi Lisa. I've never tested it with less sugar, sorry. But you could certainly change the type of sugar. Happy cooking!
Georgia-Lee Cole says
could I use plain white vinegar instead?
Libby Hakim says
absolutely, though taste will be slightly different.
Troggy says
I dont even use sugar, I use honey! and I sweeten to taste. I've got a sacrificial test jar I've got in the cupboard to see how long it lives for as a preserve. knowing the shelf life will be significantly reduced because there's no sugar it's honey