As farmers' markets overflow with fresh, ripe summer tomatoes, now is the perfect time to make a batch of roasted tomato sauce. Skip the stockpot and reach for your roasting pan to create a richly concentrated and flavorful sauce that captures the essence of summer. While 'the best' is a bold statement, this recipe has been shared more than 50,000 times through the years. It's a reader favorite for good reason.
In late summer when prices are low, I'll bring home 10-20 pounds of fresh tomatoes and make my own roasted tomato sauce. Roasting tomatoes concentrates their natural sweetness. Adding garlic, onions, and herbs adds wonderful flavor. Store-bought pasta sauce can't hold a candle to this!
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Why You'll Like This Recipe
- Roasted tomato sauce freezes well for a quick meal in colder months to come.
- Takes advantage of fresh summer tomatoes.
- Terrific with many dishes like this easy chicken parmesan, and of course simply with a bowl of pasta.
If you love homemade tomato sauce, here's another recipe, my easy homemade marinara sauce. Make it in about 30 minutes with canned tomatoes.
Roasted Tomato Sauce Ingredients
- Tomatoes: Use meaty, fresh ripe tomatoes, whatever looks best and is a good price as you need a lot of tomatoes. Check out your local farmer's markets. Different types of tomatoes is good
- Garlic: Use fresh garlic cloves, not garlic powder, for that punch of flavor. A must for tomato sauce.
- Oil: Extra virgin olive oil is the best.
- Wine: A little dry red wine adds nice flavor but it's optional.
- Herbs: Fresh oregano, fresh basil leaves, or some of each.
- Onions: Yellow, brown, or white, all are fine.
- Red pepper flakes: If you want to add a little spiciness.
Please see the recipe card for measurements, salt and black pepper.
Here's another of my favorite tomato-based sauces; mushroom marinara. Rich and meaty but no meat!
Chef Sally's tip on wine: When I cook with wine I use the mini airline size bottles so I don't have to open a big bottle. They work great, are inexpensive, and easy to keep in the pantry. Wine enhances flavor in cooking, but of course using it is optional.
Substitutions and Variations
- To offset the acidity of the tomatoes, some people add a little sugar. If your tomatoes are sweet, you probably won't need it, but you can use it if perferred. Another option is a little monk fruit.
- Another nice addition is a tablespoon or two of balsamic vinegar. Add this when pureeing the roasted tomato sauce. It adds nicely to the flavor of the sauce.
- To use dried herbs instead of fresh herbs, use a dried Italian seasoning blend. Use ⅓ to ½ as much as fresh herbs.
Chef's tips on tomatoes: So what's a good tomato for this sauce? I usually buy a combination of heirloom varieties like Brandywine and Purple Cherokee (a purple beefsteak) and Roma tomatoes, for fun color and flavor mixed in. Red beefsteak tomatoes are excellet too. Buy what looks best and is a good price as this is a lot of tomatoes! A mix is great for roasted pasta sauce. For more info on varieties of tomatoes read this.
Recipe Instructions
- Step 1: Pre-heat a hot oven or two ovens to 425°F.
- Step 2: Wash the tomatoes and core them, depending on variety. Beefsteak and heirloom tomatoes have bigger cores. If you are using Romas, you may only need to chop them. Chop the tomatoes into larger chunks. Add them to the roasting pans.
- Step 3: Roughly chop onions and peel garlic cloves leaving them whole. Add them to the roasting pans, diving the quantity between the two.
- Step 4: Add olive oil, chopped herbs, wine (if using), salt and pepper and toss with your hands to mix.
- Step 5: Roast the tomatoes. Timing is approximately 1:15 minutes, depending on how juicy the tomatoes are, how concentrated you want your roasted tomato sauce, and your ovens. It might take a little longer.
- Stir the sauce half way through. Check their progress around 45 minutes. Don't leave the ovens open too long. Roast until the tomatoes and onions are a nicely shriveled with browned edges and there is still a little juice in the pan bottom.
- Step 6: When roasting is complete, allow pans to cool long enough to handle, then spoon everything carefully into a food processor or blender in batches and puree. For a chunky sauce, do a few pulses. For a smooth sauce, process for a little longer. Your preference.
Another tool option, use a stick blender (immersion blender). They are a handy tool that takes up a lot less kitchen space than a food processor or high powered blender for smaller kitchens. Be sure to puree in a tall pot in the kitchen sink to reduce splatter (and wear an apron!).
Chef's tip on yield: My most recent batch of roasted tomato sauce yielded 3 beautiful quarts. At other times, the yield has been 2 quarts. Maybe the tomatoes were more or less juicy, or maybe I reduced it farther in roasting. Either way, the sauce is fantastic and thick after pureeing.
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Recipe Tips and Tricks
Use one large roasting pan (like you use for a turkey) for a half batch or two large roasting pans for a full batch. For a full batch with one roasting pan, split this recipe into two batches. If you have double ovens or one really large oven, you might be able to do two pans at once with two roasting pans. If you only have one roasting pan, try borrowing a second from a friend.
Another option is using a big electric roaster like you might do a turkey in. Electric roasters are great tools and I've used them for other recipes but not for roasted tomato sauce. You'll have to experiment with timing.
Don't use disposable, uncoated aluminum pans. The acidity in tomatoes reacts with the aluminum with the possibility of leaving an unpleasant metallic taste.
While the long terms effects of aluminum leaching into foods it not fully known (there are conflicting reports), acidic foods like tomatoes are better off in stainless steel or anodized aluminum. Anodized aluminum roasting pans work because the manufacturing process hardens the metal making it non-reactive.
Read Tip: Willie says "I've been making this for a few years now - the best marinara sauce EVER! ? I use two stainless steel cookie sheets (don't have 2 roasting pans) and switch top and bottom, half way thru cooking". See here entire comment below.
Serving and Storing Suggestions
- Serve over your favorite pasta noodle. It's a good basic spaghetti sauce, or for penne or rotini (corkscrew).
- For a lower carb dinner, serve over zucchini noodles.
- It makes a terrific pizza sauce!
- Roasted tomato sauce is also terrific with my ricotta and kale stuffed shells recipe.
- Serve as a dipping sauce with a grilled cheese sandwich. Oh, it's so good.
How Do I Store Roasted Tomato Sauce?
Roasted tomato sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 5 days in an airtight container, or freezer for up to 6 months. I've used glass jars (like a mason jar or a ball jar) and these portioned silicone freezing cubes.
Store roasted tomato sauce in them or when the sauce is frozen solid, pop the cubes out and store in freezer-safe zip bags, labeled and dated.
When you fill jars, don't fill them all of the way to the top. Leave a little head space for expansion.
To thaw frozen sauce, place in the refrigerator overnight, pour into a pan over medium heat with a lid on low heat. On of my favorite things to label jars with is these removable labels. They work great.
Roasted Tomato Sauce Canning Notes
I used to can this sauce with a pressure canner so it was pantry stable. Now I just freeze the finished sauce.
Low-acid foods such as tomato sauce should optimally be processed using a pressure canner, not a water bath. Only a pressure canner can reach the 240 degrees necessary to safely process low-acid foods (a ph value greater than 4.6).
For instructions on preparing canned tomatoes, check out this article from Simply Canning.
Recipe FAQs
Meatier tomatoes are best for making a roasted tomato sauce. Buy either Roma tomatoes or plum tomatoes, but you can use any variety of tomatoes depending on availability and personal preference. I often use heirloom tomatoes.
If the tomatoes have lots of seeds, squeeze or slice some of them out after halving or quartering. A combination of tomatoes make for good flavor. If you want a really red sauce, use all red tomatoes, or mix in colors for fun and flavor.
No need to peel tomatoes before roasting as the skins soften during roasting and add nice texture to the finished sauce. Plus, there is good nutrition in those skins, so I recommend not peeling. It's definitely a time saver too. For a smoother roasted tomato sauce, puree longer in a food processor or blender.
Traditional herbs for roasted tomato sauce include basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, Italian parsley, and bay leaf. Soft leaf herbs blend into the finished sauce easily when pureeing. Herbs such as bay leaf must be removed, as you do not want to eat them. Rosemary, if chopped, will blend in, or use sprigs then remove after roasting.
More Recipes With Tomatoes
Here are more recipe for you using tomatoes, from oven roasted cherry tomatoes to an easy marinara, bolognese, and mushroom sauce.
⭐️Did You Make This Recipe?
If you make this roasted tomato sauce recipe, please comment and let me know, and if you loved it, please give it a 5 star rating! They really help other readers.
Recipe originally published in September 19, 2011.
📖 Recipe
Roasted Tomato Sauce
Equipment
- Stainless steel roasting pans
- Food processor or blender
- Double ovens or split the batch into two
Ingredients
- 10 pounds fresh tomatoes
- 16 large whole garlic cloves, peeled
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup dry red wine optional
- 6 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves or basil leaves (or both) or 2 tablespoons dried
- 2 medium onions roughly chopped
- 1-2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar optional
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
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Instructions
Pre-heat Ovens
- Pre-heat the oven (s) to 425°F. Get out two large stainless steel roasting pans (like for roasting a turkey).
Prep Tomatoes
- Wash the tomatoes. Depending on the type of tomato, you may need to cut out the core first, as with large Beefsteak or Heirloom varieties. You may not need to with Roma or plum tomatoes Cut tomatoes into large chunks. Don’t cut the pieces too small. Big chunks are good. Smaller pieces roast too fast.
Roast Tomatoes
- Place tomatoes in the roasting pan. Add garlic cloves, oil, wine or broth, oregano, onion, salt and pepper. Toss with your hands. Place pans in the oven and roast until tomatoes have reduced and are starting to get a few black edges. The pan should still have some juices, not be dry. Depending on your oven it should take about 60 minutes. Stir half way through. If the tomatoes are really juicy, it may take longer.
Cool and Puree
- Remove pans from oven, set on the stove top and allow to cool until you can handle it. Carefully transfer the roast tomatoes into a food processor and pulse 5-6 times or until you get the preferred texture. You can also use a blender and process in batches. Serve or cool completely and freeze in portions.
Tricia says
Can you freeze in ball jars with the plastic covers, without sealing them? I would think it would be the same as freezing them in a plastic container? Thanks
Sally Cameron says
Hi Tricia. Yes, I freeze mine all of the time in ball jars with the plastic twist on lids. Be sure to leave enough head space for the portion to expand during freezing. If you don't, the jar might crack and break from the pressure of expansion.
Robin says
Looks really yummy! Question did you peel your tomatoes before roasting? Or did you food process all together?
Sally Cameron says
Hi Robin. Leave those beautiful nutrient rich peels on. They get soft during roasting then you puree and it's nice and thick. Hope you enjoy! Thanks for the question.
Sara Simpson says
Thanks, Sally, for your quick response. We prefer frozen too, but we're out of freezer space, so we have to can. We're not super experienced with canning, and some of the info we've read suggests to use citric acid when canning tomatoes. We can't wait to try this recipe - sounds YUM!
Sara Simpson says
Do we need to add citric acid to help with the preservation? If so, will it affect the taste?
Is a granite-coated turkey roasting pan okay to use?
Sally Cameron says
Hi Sara. I've never used citric acid. I don't think it is needed, but you could. Mostly I just freeze my sauce anymore versus canning. I find that fresh and frozen has, for me, a fresher flavor, than after it's been processed through the heat of pressure canning. I've never used a granite-coated pan. As long as it is not aluminum, but stainless steel or ceramic, you should be good. Aluminum and the acidity of tomatoes is not good.
Georgine says
Love this recipe. Made it this weekend did two different batches both were great. But on the 2nd batch my husband wanted a little heat so I added a little Tabasco sauce and Worcester sauce it was great. I used Choke Cherry wine from Prairie Berry Winery in Hill City South Dakota and it gave it wonderful flavor. I canned mine in a hot water bath for 30 minutes. Worked out great. Thank you for sharing this great recipe it will be a family favorite.
Sally Cameron says
Sounds terrific Georgine! All good twists. Thanks for commenting.
Barb says
Sally, My husband and I made your sauce today and like Donna, it ended up being orange in color. We used fresh tomatoes from our garden and made sure they weighed 10 pounds. All the other ingredients were followed exactly as well, so we aren't quite sure what went wrong. We did not use Roma tomatoes which may have helped with the color. We did blended it to a puree instead of chunky and had to boil it on the stove a couple more hours to get the right consistency. Anyway, the taste is great and it will certainly be enjoyed this winter over our favorite pasta.
Sally Cameron says
Hi Barb. Don't worry about the color. Nothing probably went wrong. Different tomatoes yield different results. The taste is what matters! And sometimes tomatoes can be juicer than what I might have had, so again, not to worry. This recipe is meant to be done in the oven, then pureed. If you did, but it was still juicy, simmering would help to thicken. Just simmer until it is as thick as is your preference. Donna asked about adding tomato paste. That might help the thickness, viscosity, but not sure how much it will deepen the color, depending on your batch. Does that make sense? You should not have had to boil it for a few hours. A low simmer, for awhile? Maybe, but not boiling for hours. And I have never had to take that extra step. A long simmer, if you have time, makes the flavor richer and deeper as it concentrates the flavor. Thanks much for writing and let me know if you have more questions.
Donna says
I made this today and it is very good. I do not like the orange color - redder would be more appealing. Would adding tomato paste work? I may not have had enough tomatoes! I modified a bit.
Sally Cameron says
Hi Donna. It might be the color of your tomatoes? Sometimes winter tomatoes are not as rich and deep a red as in summer. Just my first thought. Tomato paste would make it thicker and it's already pretty thick. Not sure it would make a big color difference.
Steph says
The addition of basil was delicious!! The original recipe was so good that I almost didn't try it, but I added it to the last portion prior to puree and it rocks! We will keep both methods for future use! (My second bath is in the oven as we speak.)
Molly says
Just made this and it came out VERY Tomatoey. I cut it with some sugar but also heard baking soda would help. Any suggestions? Also, is it possible to do this in a water bath canner?
Sally Cameron says
Hi Molly. I am not sure what you mean by very tomatoey, as it is based on tomatoes. Adding a little sugar cuts acidity. I have not heard of using baking soda, and personally would not do that. If it is too thin, you probably needed to let it roast longer, until more moisture is gone and it is very thick and reduced. Different ovens and pans may take different times. Sometimes it needs to go longer. If its not too late, put it back in the oven and reduce longer. Form what I have learned and done in my own kitchen, tomatoes take a pressure canner, to be safe. Why don't you just freeze it? Easier. One more note, you can read on the Ball canning site about water canning tomatoes if you want tor try that Here is the link. Do some research. http://www.freshpreserving.com/recipes/crushed-tomatoes. And here is another link. I've added both of these to the post.http://www.simplycanning.com/canningtomatoes.html
Steph says
Hi! I'm wondering what your thoughts are about adding fresh basil and red or green pepper? Can't wait to try this recipe!
Sally Cameron says
Hi Steph. Thanks for your question. I have never made it with peppers, but I am sure the fresh basil would be good. I kind of like the flavor of the tomatoes to shine, but it's certainly worth trying! Please report back if you do. As fresh basil is so soft, and fresh herbs are usually added towards the end of recipes, I also wonder if adding the fresh basil at the very end would be good. After you pull the pan from the oven, then add finely sliced basil leaves and mix in. Let the heat of the hot tomatoes wilt them just enough, then puree.
Sheryl says
Making this sauce now and the house smells divine! Can't wait to try it. Thanks for the wonderful recipe.
Sally Cameron says
Reminds me I better get some made too while tomatoes are so beautiful and plentiful. Thanks Sheryl. Let us know after you get to try it!
Bailey Burton says
I made the sauce today , and it was lovely. When I make it again, I will blanch the tomatoes to remove the skin. I am not a fan of skin in my tomato sauces, and this short added step will fit my needs and taste better.
Elizabeth says
Wonderful sauce, do you think it could be frozen instead of canned?
Sally Cameron says
Hi Elizabeth. Yes, it freezes perfectly. That is what I usually do now versus canning. Hope you enjoy!
Bonnie says
At what pounds of pressure do you keep the pressure cooker at for the 20 min?
Sally says
Process the sauce in pint/half liter jars for 20 minutes at hight pressure or according to the manufacturers instructions. If you do this Bonnie, please report back! Thanks, Sally.
Syrenna says
This sounds very good and an interesting way to make it. I'm excited to try it, but you didn't say how long or at what pressure this should be processed at for canning. Thank you
Sally says
Hi Syrenna. I use a 10 quart Fagor pressure cooker and high pressure. It is the stove top style, not an electric. Process the sauce in pint/half liter jars for 20 minutes or according to the manufacturers instructions.Give yourself enough headroom before screwing on the lids. I have not canned this for awhile. I just freeze it now. Getting lazy! Thanks for the question Syrenna.