An easy recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce made with fresh summer tomatoes, garlic and herbs.  Extend summer’s harvest into winter- can be made ahead and frozen or canned. Watch the video!An easy recipe for Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce highlighting juicy ripe summer tomatoes! A fun, simple way to extend summer's harvest!  Freeze or Can! 

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 are 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.  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… that is pretty much it!

FYI: If you are looking for a faster, stove-top version, take a look at this Fast and Easy Marinara Sauce!

Roasted Tomato Sauce Ingredients

  • Tomatoes– this recipe is perfect for summer’s bounty of vine-ripe fresh tomatoes.
  • Shallots and Garlic– enhances with savory goodness.
  • Herbsoregano and basil are the go-to’s but feel free to add or substitute with marjoram, rosemary or whatever you love.
  • Olive Oil– use a light good quality one!

See the recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.     

An easy recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce made with fresh summer tomatoes, garlic and herbs.  Extend summer's harvest into winter- can be made ahead and frozen or canned. 

How To Make Roasted Tomato Sauce

You can make this recipe one of two ways- either blend the sauce or mash the sauce, depending on the size of the tomatoes.

  1. Drizzle a large, rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic and shallot.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.  (Alternatively, you can blend the sauce.)
  4. 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.
  5. To use right away, reheat in a pan or pot. Or refrigerate for  up to 5 days, or freeze (see notes).
Pulling skins off of tomatoes on a sheet pan.

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.

You can either mash the tomatoes with a potato masher for a chunkier sauce, or blend for smooth. Pulsing in a food processor allows some texture to remain with some uniformity- all good options!

Mashing roasted tomatoes in a bowl.

If you want to use smaller tomatoes, you can still slip off the skins, but they will take a little more time since they are smaller. 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.

An easy recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce highlighting juicy, ripe summer tomatoes! A fun, simple way to extend summer's harvest. Can be frozen for winter.

Serve the roasted tomato sauce over your favorite pasta, sauteed zucchini noodles, roasted spaghetti squash, or with meatballs.

An easy recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce made with fresh summer tomatoes, garlic and herbs.  Extend summer's harvest into winter- can be made ahead and frozen or canned. 

How To Store Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

  • This recipe makes about 4 cups, enough for one or two meals, and keeps the fridge for 5-6 days.
  • You may also freeze the sauce or can the sauce (see recipe notes) for a little burst of sunshine in the winter months which I try to do every year.

What to Serve With Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

Use on pasta, polenta, zucchini noodles, roasted vegetable, in lasagna- the possibilities are endless!

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce FAQS

Is it ok to leave the skin on tomatoes when making sauce?

Yes when using fresh tomatoes, the skins are often tender and full of vitamins and nutrients! You can also easily slip the skins off after roasting the tomatoes on a pan.

Should you remove seeds from tomatoes when making sauce?

The seeds don’t impact the flavor but you want a smooth sauce you can remove them.

Do Italians put sugar in tomato sauce?

If the tomatoes are not fully ripe, such as near the end of the season, a pinch of sugar can cut the acidity and balance the sauce. Taste first! Your tomatoes may be sweet enough!

You may also enjoy:

More tomato Recipes!

Hope you love this recipe Roasted Tomato Sauce highlighting juicy ripe summer tomatoes! A fun, simple way to extend summer’s harvest!

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Roasted Tomato Sauce | 30-second video 

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An easy recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce highlighting juicy, ripe summer tomatoes! A fun, simple way to extend summer's harvest. Can be frozen for winter.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 72 reviews
  • Author: Sylvia Fountaine | Feasting at Home
  • Prep Time: 20
  • Cook Time: 40
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 44 1/2 cups 1x
  • Category: Sauce, preserving, canning,
  • Method: Roasting, canning, freezing
  • Cuisine: Italian
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

An easy recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce made with fresh summer tomatoes, garlic and herbs.  Extend summer’s harvest into winter- can be made ahead and frozen or canned. Watch the video!


Ingredients

Units Scale
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 46 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)
  • 12 tablespoon fresh basil, torn or chopped
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt ( or salt to taste)
  • pepper to taste
  • 1/2 teaspoon sugar ( optional)

Instructions

  1. Pre-heat ove to 400 F
  2. Drizzle a large, rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Sprinkle with garlic and shallot.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. To use right away, reheat in a pan or pot. Or refrigerate for  up to 5 days, or freeze (see notes).

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:

  1. Prepare boiling water canner. Heat a quart-jar in gently simmering water until ready to use, do not boil. Wash lid in warm soapy water and set aside with bands.
  2. Add 2 tablespoons lemon juice to the hot, 4-cup, quart jar, (or 1 tablespoon to a pint 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.
  3. 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.
  4. This Canning Link is helpful!

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.

Nutrition

  • Serving Size: ½ cup
  • Calories: 63
  • Sugar: 3.7 g
  • Sodium: 389.7 mg
  • Fat: 4.6 g
  • Saturated Fat: 0.7 g
  • Carbohydrates: 6 g
  • Fiber: 2.9 g
  • Protein: 1.3 g
  • Cholesterol: 0 mg

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Comments

  1. Best recipe ever! I have made this 3 times and today I’m making with fresh tomatoes that I froze from summer. My family really enjoys the flavor. I use an Emerson blender to make this into a nice marinara then saute hot Italian sausage and hamburger. I freeze by using my food saver, which you can lay flat. I’m so glad I found this recipe.






  2. I used this recipe to use up some of our garden tomatoes and last night made the most delightful pasta with the delicious sauce. Sylvia, I have used so many of your recipes with great success and many compliments. The accompanying photos are just beautiful. So happy I found your site!






  3. Love this Roasted Tomato Sauce! Easy to cook up, adjust seasonings to your taste and use up your bountiful tomato harvest. Three pounds of tomatoes makes a little more than a quart of sauce.






  4. Love your recipe for roasted tomato sauce but can’t get to the video. I’ve spent 5 minutes waiting for ads and other recipes to go by. I would subscribe if I could avoid that torture.

  5. I have always been told not to cook tomatoes in or on aluminum, and so I am worried about doing this recipe. Aren’t most sheet pans, or rimmed baking pans, made of aluminum?

    1. Yes, please use parchment if using an aluminum pan, tomatoes or not. This is a black enamel pan.

  6. Worked out perfect! I put everything (garlic, oil, basil, oregano, s&p) down on the pan first, and then tomatoes on top. Baked @ 400 for 30 min, pulled out and popped skins off with tongs, then mixed around in the juices, and put back in the oven for 10 more min. Spooned into a pot when hot and done, and mashed with a potato masher. Absolutely delicious!






  7. I have loads of frozen tomatoes that I would like to use for this recipe. Will it work with frozen tomatoes? Would I need to roast them for longer?

    1. I’m not usre Lisa. I would thaw them first and then when roasting just keep an eye on them. You want to roast them long enough that the skins pull right off.

    2. Yes! You may add a bit more cooking time, but frozen tomatoes would work well! Especially if they were frozen at the height of their ripeness.






  8. Hello Sylvia, I’m very happy to have found your website and have tried a number of your recipes with success. I was just about to start making your roasted tomato sauce, but first to interrupt preparation to go back to my server to do the conversion to metric, when I thought to ask you whether you might consider adding the conversion function to your online recipes. I, as I’m sure many of your metric followers, would appreciate it. Meanwhile, thanks for all you share with us 🙋🏻‍♀️.

    1. Hi Ingrid- do you see the metric converter tab at the top of the recipe card. It is there, but not always super accurate.

        1. Ok that is strange Ingrid- now I don’t see it either! Let me work on this- and please check back in a couple days. 🙂

        2. Ingrid, I have saved thousands (including many Feasting at Home) recipes to my Paprika 3 app. It has metric conversion and also an easy way to cut recipes in half or increase. Very, very handy!

  9. Fool proof excellent! I used sweet yellow cherry tomatoes, Roma slices, and mini yellow and red sweet peppers , all on a large baking sheet lined with parchment paper. I had no garlic cloves, and didn’t have time for prepping onion, so I substituted a little garlic and onion granules when I added a sprinkle of oregano and basil. So delicious!!






  10. This is now my go to recipe whenever I get tomatoes in my farm box. It’s great with ravioli or tortellini especially!






  11. I cut the amounts in half and made a scant two serving “sauce” and we even had leftovers. But it was delicious! Thank you.

    1. You propbably had extra juicy tomatoes. You can thick by cooking off the water on the stove it you like. 🙂

  12. Thank you for this. I got a bucketful of assorted yellow and strange looking red striped tomatoes from a neighbour and had a ton of my own cherry tomatoes. I roasted them with garlic. The sauce was so sweet but I didn’t know what else to add to it or what I was going to use it for. Your recipe was perfect especially as I have home grown fresh basil and oregano. This recipe took a good tasting sweet roasted batch of tomatoes and put it over the top for pasta and meatballs. Thank you.






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