An easy recipe for Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce highlighting juicy, ripe summer tomatoes! A fun, simple way to extend summer’s harvest! Freeze for winter!
Back in the restaurant and catering days, we would load up the oven with sheet-pans full of summer tomatoes. Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce was one of my favorite things to make because juicy ripe tomatoes at their peak of flavor! And roasting them seems to concentrate their sweetness and intensify their flavors even more.
There’s really not too much that needs to be done to a good tomato and so this is why this recipe stays “simple”. A few cloves of garlic, a shallot, a drizzle of good olive oil, a few sprigs of oregano or basil, and a sprinkling of salt….. and that is pretty much it.
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT!
You can make this recipe, one of two ways.
After roasting the tomatoes – slip off the skins and mash. They slip off very easily and only takes about 3-4 minutes.
This works well for medium and larger tomatoes.
If you want to use smaller tomatoes, you can still slip off the skins, but since they are smaller, they will take a little more time.
Or simply blend the tomato sauce, leaving the skins on.
I do both, depending on what tomatoes I’m using.
Some people like to remove the seeds… up to you. I leave them in.
Serve it over your favorite pasta, or if going low-carb, try the oven-roasted tomato sauce over zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash… so delicious!
This recipe makes about 4 cups, enough for one or two meals, and keeping the fridge for 5-6 days. You may also freeze the sauce for a little burst of sunshine in the winter months which I try to do every year. See the recipe notes!
An easy recipe for Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce highlighting juicy ripe summer tomatoes! A fun, simple way to extend summer’s harvest!
PrintOven Roasted Tomato Sauce
An easy recipe for Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce made with fresh summer tomatoes, garlic and herbs. Extend summer’s harvest into winter! Freeze for winter!
- Prep Time: 20
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4-5 cups 1x
- Category: Sauce, How To
- Method: Roasting
- Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4– 6 cloves garlic, rough chopped
- 1 shallot, diced
- 3 lbs ripe (med-large) tomatoes, cored and cut in half ( for small tomatoes, see notes)
- —-
- 1 tablespoons fresh oregano ( or 1 teaspoon dried, or use Italian seasoning)
- 1–2 tablespoon fresh basil, torn or chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt ( or salt to taste)
- pepper to taste
- ½ teaspoon sugar ( optional)
Instructions
- Pre-heat ove to 400 F
- Drizzle a large, rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic and shallot.
- Place the sliced tomatoes cut-side down on the sheet pan and roast 30 minutes. Add the oregano and basil and roast 10 more minutes, or until skins have lifted off the tomatoes.
- Let cool, pull off the skins, then pour all the tomatoes and their roasting juices into a bowl. Mash with a fork or potato masher. Season with salt and pepper. Sometimes, to bring the flavor around I’ll add a little sugar. This depends on your palate and the tomatoes you are using ( some are sweeter than others). Start with ½ a teaspoon. Taste, adjust.
- To use right away, reheat in a pan or pot. Or refrigerate for up to 5 days, or freeze.
- If freezing in a mason jar, make sure jar and lid are clean and sterile. Let sauce come to room temperature. Fill jars leaving 2 inches headroom at the top of the jar, to prevent jar from breaking- because sauce will expand as it freezes.
- Thaw in the fridge for 24-48 hours.
Notes
If roasting small tomatoes, feel free roast whole and blend the sauce with the skins on. They may not need as long in the oven, check after 20 minutes.
If canning the tomato sauce, follow these instructions:
- Prepare boiling water canner. Heat jars in gently simmering water until ready to use, do not boil. Wash lids in warm soapy water and set aside with bands.
- Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice to the hot jar, ladle hot tomato sauce into a hot jar leaving a ½ inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe the jar rim clean and seal lid to fingertip tight.
- Place jar in boiling water canner and process for 40 minutes. Turn off heat, let jars sit 5 minutes in the water. Remove jars and cool 12-24 hours. Check lids for seal, they should not flex when center is pressed.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: ½ cup
Keywords: roasted tomato sauce, roasted tomato sauce recipe, easy tomato sauce, easy tomato sauce recipes, tomato sauce recipes, roasting tomatoes, roasted tomatoes
This is a fantastic recipe- the first time I have loved a homemade tomato sauce. I couldn’t bear to part with the yummy browned skins, so I pulled them off and used my immersion blender to make a sauce with some of the juices. After that was smooth, I dumped in the rest of the tomato chunks and used a potato masher to finish.
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Great to hear~so happy you liked this!
An over abundance of tomatoes this year left me scratching my head ! What am I going to do with all these? You’re recipe rescued me! Absolutely delicious!
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Awesome Suzanne!!!
Oh mine! I’ve always found homemade tomato sauce to be disappointing and ususally a bit watered down no matter how long I cooked it for. Last night I needed tomato sauce for my hot dogs (Yes, in Brazil we eat hot dogs with tomato sauce, bell peppers, onions, and condiments), but I didn’t want to get another pot dirty and a subpar sauce. It ocurred to me I could try making this is the oven, since every vegetable tastes better and sweeter when roasted and your recipe was the first one to pop up on my search. Delicious! Simply delicious. Thicker, smokyer, and sweeter than any sauce I’ve had so far. Thank you!!!
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Yay! Glad you liked it!
This was an amazing recipe. I always make my traditional stewed tomatoes. This year I had box and box of little tomatoes that have been ripping over the fall. This was an excellent way of using them. I went in line to see what people were doing and your recipe popped up first. I looked no further. I make 4 very large commercial baking pans. I am so excited about this recipe because it just changed my canned sauce. Way easier then traditional. My tomato skin got nice a blacken and was so yummy but mushed up. Gave a real roasted flavour. I modified a bit as well add pepper and hot pepper. I had lots of red onion from my garden. I super happy with the out come. Today I am just wondering what the best option is freezer or canning. What do you like?
I’m not great at canning so I usually freeze. Just leave space at the top of the jar for expansion.
Hi, i’m about to follow your recipe to roast small tomatoes. I’m curious why you recommend roasting cut side down versus up?
All the other roasted tomatoe instructions I’ve read say cut side up? I’m going with your recipe though because I like your website and recipes!!
Thank you
Skin side up for med-large tomatoes… for easy removal of skin. For small tomatoes I usually leave the skins on so I just toss them whole.
Short prep time, simple ingredients, and a great way to use up the tomatoes (plum, red and is yellow cherry) generously given by my neighbors from their garden. Followed the recipe exactly as written and the aroma and flavor is great. The tomatoes were sweet enough that no sugar was required. This recipe is definitely a keeper. Just wish I had found it sooner.
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Yay!!! Glad you liked it!!
This was delicious served over home made meatballs. I had been craving the aroma of roasted tomatoes and garlic when I stumbled across this recipe. I prepared the sauce almost exactly as written with the remainder of my tomato harvest. I had a green pepper on hand so I added it to the roasted vegetables and instead of adding sugar I splashed a little red wine vinegar in the sauce.
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Thanks Cooper!
About to make a second Bach as first one disappeared in a blink. ? This time will add few chilli peppers, as we have an abundance of ?️ wonder would adding precooked carrots would be an option as well ?
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Easy, economical, and a lovely bright taste that will be greatly appreciated this winter.
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I think my tomatoes were too big. I followed the recipe exactly and they looked and smelled terrific, skin all brown and tasty but the tomatoes were still a bit hard. Finished them off in a pot on the stove.
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I will definitely make this as soon as I have more ripe Roma tomatoes. Delicious!!
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So wonderfully delicious and easy! It was my first time making it and I will definitely be making it again. I did not have a shallot so used 1 Walla Walla onion instead. Perfection. Did not need the sugar. Thank you!
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The sauce is suuuper delicious! I will be freezing it for winter months. How much would you say will be enough for a 1 lb of pasta?
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Outrageously delicious
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Love how easy this recipe is!! It is also a great starting point to personalize. I reduced the juice w/a splash of balsamic. Also added a red thinly sliced red bell pepper to roasting pan. The original recipe gives a clean and crisp tomato taste – a little modification really changes it to a complex sauce.
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Love it Jane, thanks for sharing your adaptions!
Couldn’t get through 5 second’s of the video without a commercial, I look elsewhere for another recipe.
Had to give a star rating to post.
★★★★
Sorry about that.
So simple, quick, healthy and delicious. Can add whatever fresh spices, or roast extra veges ie. red peppers, with this recipe to make it your own. Ate the tomato skins, with salt on = vege candy! Chopped the roasted veges in my chopper instead of mashing them, wiped the chopper down with half a piece of multigrain bread and it was delish, too! This made my Italian heart sing and the house smelled like heaven!
Hello my awesome Sylvia,
I have made this wonderful oven-roasted tomato sauce so many times this summer and tonight. My husband loves it, our friends love it and I love you for sharing your amazing recipes.
Thank you for being in our lives with all your wonderful recipes and comments. We are going through a difficult time this year with numerous health problems for my husband, but cooking your healthy recipes will carry us through this..
All my love to you and your husband.
Hugs and love, Else
★★★★★
I have made this recipe several times and plan to make it again this week. I use small tomatoes and leave the skin and seeds intact. I use an immersion blender and it works great. I also add a littl parm cheese, but other than that I pretty much stick to the recipe. One time I did end up easily converting this recipe into a tomato bisque soup (before you posted the roasted tomato soup). The soup was well received. I highly recommend this recipe. It is super tasty and super easy.
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This sauce is downright amazing!
I made 4 times the quantity, I had some for dinner that night and canned it for the remainder for the winter months. Excellent flavours! Thanks for sharing.
Yum! Tasty but kinda messy. i spilled the juices all over my oven. :p
★★★★★
Sooo delicious! Served it over Spaghetti Squash (Instant Pot perfect). I can’t make enough of your recipes!
I did that exact same thing! Used the instant pot for the spaghetti squash too! Funny. Maybe I should post that? I wonder if that would be helpful to people
★★★★★
excellent
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Yay!!!
The perfect way to use up summer tomatoes! I did this last week with what was left of our tomato crop. It’s a great way to use up blemished tomatoes too!
Thanks Lindsay, yes a great way to use up blemished tomatoes….I agree!