Homemade tomato sauce is one of the most rewarding things you can do with your homegrown tomatoes. (That’s saying a lot because there are so many wonderful things to do with the tomatoes you grow!)
Really – if you like tomato sauce, you’ll love making your own. The flavor (and sense of accomplishment) are something beyond compare.
And nothing could be easier than this recipe, which takes making homemade tomato sauce down to as little work as it could be.
Jump to:
- Single Batch, Batch for an Evening Dinner, or Scale Up for Preserving
- How to Make the Most Impressive, Easiest, Best-Tasting Roasted Tomato Sauce
- Ingredients for Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce
- *What types of tomatoes can you use for this roasted tomato sauce?
- Instructions for making Homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce
- Prep your vegetables before roasting:
- To make the sauce:
- If you like a thicker sauce…
Single Batch, Batch for an Evening Dinner, or Scale Up for Preserving
The beauty of this roasted tomato sauce recipe is that you can scale it up or down to make as much or as little as you want.
Only have a bowlful of tomatoes ready? Make it for an evening meal!
Have tomatoes crowding you out of your kitchen?
Go big and put it up for later!
Though this recipe could be canned, it is super easy to throw in zipper freezer bags or deli containers and freeze it – quick, and less work!
If you do want to can this sauce, follow the canning times and instructions for tomato sauce with vegetables in it.
In the US, the recommended canning method for this sauce would be to pressure can it (because of the peppers, etc.). Other countries would be comfortable with hot water bath canning for this sauce.
How to Make the Most Impressive, Easiest, Best-Tasting Roasted Tomato Sauce
What makes this sauce so easy to make is that you don’t even have to blanch and peel the tomatoes first.
Instead, we will roast the tomatoes along with all the other ingredients and then puree everything at the end.
Today’s blenders and food processors are so good you’ll never even know this sauce has peels in it! But oh, the hours that save!
Ingredients for Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce
Yield: One Quart of finished Roasted Tomato Sauce
Multiply ingredients accordingly to scale up for bigger batches.
- 2.5 to 3 pounds of tomatoes*
- 1 onion
- 1 green pepper (or any type of sweet pepper -- Italian peppers are lovely, too; you can also use red or other colors of peppers)
- 5 to 7 cloves of fresh garlic (more to taste -- there’s never enough garlic!)
- ¼ cup fresh basil leaves (one tablespoon if you are using dried basil)
- Salt and pepper to taste
*What types of tomatoes can you use for this roasted tomato sauce?
Roma or sauce-type tomatoes are best, but you can use any type of tomatoes in this recipe -- use what you have an excess of!
Just keep in mind that with this simple recipe, we are not removing the seeds.
So, seedier tomatoes and small tomatoes like cherry tomatoes will result in a sauce with more seeds. If you don’t want seeds in your sauce, you can run it through a food mill with a fine screen after you roast the tomatoes. This will also take out the tomato skins.
Note: if you mill the seed and skins out, your yield will be slightly lower for the finished product.
Instructions for making Homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce
You will roast all the ingredients together on one large baking sheet. If you use an 18x13-inch baking sheet, each sheet will make about one quart of sauce when finished.
Use a baking sheet with sides. The tomatoes will release a lot of juice. If you use a flat baking sheet, the juice will run all over and make a nice mess for you!
Of course, the pan isn’t really important. If you don’t have the right baking sheets, casserole or cake pans are fine to use, too.
Prep your vegetables before roasting:
Wash and prep your fresh vegetables before you start. If you’re making a large batch, it helps to do each type in its own bowl, and then you can easily build and roast sheet pans as you go.
- Wash the tomatoes and peppers. (A soak in vinegar and water for 10 to 15 minutes works well; then, just rub off any dried leaves or dirt while they’re in the water)
Prepping tomatoes:
- Cut the stem end and top of the core out of the tomatoes. If they have noticeable blossom ends, trim that off.
- Cut tomatoes into quarters. (You can cut into halves if the tomatoes are small or leave whole if they are cherry or small plum size.)
Prepping peppers:
- Cut the stem out of the peppers; then, remove the core.
- Cut peppers into quarters.
Prepping onions:
- Peel the onions.
- Cut into quarters.
Prepping garlic:
- Peel the garlic cloves.
- Leave whole.
Prepping basil:
- Rinse the basil stems and leaves under cool running water.
- Strip the leaves and leave them whole (no need to chop).
To make the sauce:
Preheat your oven to 400° F (200° C).
With all your vegetables cleaned and prepped, you’re ready to start building sheets and roasting.
- Coat the bottom of the baking sheet with olive oil.
- Cover the bottom of the sheet with the prepared tomatoes.
- Tuck the garlic cloves, pepper, and onion quarters evenly around the pan, tucked into the tomato quarters.
- Tuck the basil leaves between the tomato quarters.
- Add salt and pepper to taste; if you’re not sure how much to use, you can always add more salt and pepper at the end when you puree (or wait to add it all then); so don’t overdo it for now.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until done.
- Vegetables are done when the tomatoes are soft; the skins will pull away easily and should just start to darken and brown.
- Remove the sheet pan from the oven.
- Let cool slightly for about 5 minutes.
- Remove the tomatoes and vegetables all together using a slotted spoon.
- Put the vegetables into a blender or food processor.
- Blend to puree until smooth and uniform.
- You can also put the vegetables in a sturdy bowl or sauce pan and use an immersion blender to blend them into a puree.
- Leave the juice behind on the pan -- this will make a thicker sauce if you don’t use the watery juices.
- The juice can be cooled or frozen and used as tomato juice. Use it for drinking, cocktails, or in soups, sauces, rice cooking, or casseroles as a nice tomato-based stock.
That’s it! That’s all there is to making this delicious homemade roasted tomato sauce.
If you like a thicker sauce…
This sauce will be quite thick on its own since the juices that cooked out were left behind on the sheet pan.
However, if you like your sauce thicker, you can cook it down on a low simmer on your stove top.
Simmer low in a thick-bottomed pan, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking and scorching, and cook down until it reaches your desired consistency.
Your roasted tomato sauce is now ready to use, freeze, or preserve. Enjoy!
