Roasted Tomato Sauce

Almost nothing beats a summer tomato. The easiest and best way I know how to preserve summer tomatoes at their peak is by making Roasted Tomato Sauce. You can harvest, roast and freeze within 90 minutes and it becomes the base for tomato soups, tomato sauces, pizza sauce etc.

This easy Roasted Tomato Sauce recipe is one you really can't mess up! Just grab your tomatoes, onions, peppers (optional) and garlic, drizzle with a little avocado or olive oil, season with S&P and bake! After that all you do is give it a blitz in a blender and boom! You have the best base for pasta sauce or tomato soup!

When making tomato soup, I do this same method. Roasting your tomatoes first makes for a more robust & flavorful result.

Honestly, you can put your kids in charge of making this Roasted Tomato Sauce Recipe. They will feel accomplished and know that they contributed to the family (trust me!!). It's perfect for a beginner cook, I'd say even an 8 year old can make this!

What You Need To Make Roasted Tomato Sauce

• Fresh Tomatoes (I typically use a mix of grape tomatoes, plum tomatoes and teardrop tomatoes however whatever variety of tomatoes you have will work).
• Fresh onion, I typically use Vidalia onion aka sweet onion.
• For a little kick, a fresh jalapeno pepper or a spicy pepper you have on-hand. Often, I may cut up a few tame banana peppers or a poblano or even a few shishito peppers and add them to the baking sheet. Optional to do so.
• A big clove or two of garlic, halved.
• A drizzle of olive oil or avocado oil.
• Salt and black pepper.
• A sheet pan / baking pan and optional parchment paper.

I find lining the baking tray with parchment paper makes for easy cleanup.

Variations

• Add hot peppers or don't if you don't like spicy. If you don't have any hot peppers and want a spicy sauce, feel free to add a nice pinch of red pepper flakes.
• For a different flavor, add a couple mild peppers.
• Add a whole head of garlic or just a couple of cloves. All depends on the flavor you are going for. Personally, I only add 2 large cloves for a full tray. I want the tomato's to shine.
• You can add a drizzle of balsamic after you remove the tomatoes from the oven before blending for a zing of flavor.
• I don't add sugar to this as I blend it because I find that my home grown tomatoes and the variety I use are sweet. But taste and adjust to decide for yourself. Same goes for additional salt. Add away if needed.
• As far as basil goes, I do not add it. When I use this roasted tomato sauce recipe for pasta, I may add fresh basil to the sauce, just before serving. Same goes for making tomato soup.

Tips

• You need to use a baking sheet pan that has sides as juice will release from your ingredients as they roast.
• Cut all tomatoes (other than grape, teardrop or other tiny tomatoes). You want to slice plum tomatoes and other tomatoes so the seasoning and be absorbed and the roast time works.
• Leaving the skins on is fin! I almost always leave the skin on. IF you want to remove the skins, they come of so easily after roasting, just pull them off. I like to dehydrate the skin and make tomato salt and tomatoes flakes.
• Remember jalapenos or other hot peppers can be HOT! I have some very hot jalapenos this year. One full-sized jalapeno has made this sauce very spicy, sometimes I only add ½ a jalapeno. Test your pepper(s) for heat before deciding how much to add.
• I like to line my baking tray with a sheet of unbleached parchment paper for easy cleanup.
• I find roasting at 350 only takes 25-30 minutes. If however you are using beefsteak tomato's, since the halves are larger, I would roast for 40 minutes.
• Allow the roasted vegetables to cool for 15 minutes before blending, remember heat is energy, so make sure lid of blender is on and you hold it down carefully while you blend. Depending on you blender, you may want to put a dish towel over it to avoid any potential splatter.
• Get every but of juice from tray into blender after spooning the vegetables into the blender.
• I lightly salt the tray of veggies, that way depending on what I am using the sauce for later, I can correctly season for that. As always, taste and adjust.

After roasting (above) a quick pulse in a blender and you just made a beautiful tomato sauce!

How to use Homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce

• Use as is as a simple pasta sauce.
• Add a little heavy cream to make this a tomato bisque.
• Add vegetable stock or chicken stock to the base to make it a tomato soup.
• One of my favorite uses of this Roasted Tomato Sauce is placing it in a pan (about ½ inch deep of sauce), bringing that to a soft simmer, adding in eggs (seasoned with S&P) and fresh Parmesan pieces then placing a lid on it until eggs are cooked. Garnish with fresh parsley, chives or even cilantro and dip into it with toasted bread. SO good as a breakfast, brunch or meal.
• Use as a base for soups, stews, casseroles etc. You can even use it as a sauce for pizza or to dip garlic knots in.

How to Store

I typically freeze this sauce in quart quality mason jars (leaving a 1 inch headspace and using a plastic lid) and use within a year. I have never had an issue with a jar breaking. I also freeze all sorts of homemade moonshine and cocktails this way as well. You can also freeze in plastic bags or containers.

Hope you love this sauce recipe! I've literally made it 100+ times! It's probably different each time and THAT is the beauty of it! XO Colleen

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