Making your own homemade tomato sauce is actually really easy and is a great way to control the flavor and quality of the food you’re eating. This homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce just tastes so much better than the store-bought stuff and freezes great!
Let’s see how many of your favorite dishes call for tomato sauce...
Sweet Potato Lasagna? Check. Pizza? Check. Stuffed Spaghetti Squash Bowls? Of course. Chicken Parmesan Meal Prep? Yaas. Any Italian dish ever? Yep, that too.
When fresh tomatoes are ripe and delicious and bountiful, it's a great time to make your own homemade roasted tomato sauce and freeze it so you'll have it when it's actually cold outside and you want to bake lasagna in the oven.
Every summer, when the markets are full of ripe tomatoes bursting with flavor, I buy a lot of tomatoes and make a lot of tomato sauce. Like, really a lot.
Instead of forcing Dustin to eat one tomato dish after another the entire summer, I oven roast them and make my own Roasted Tomato Sauce. If it sounds fancy, don't be worried - it's so incredibly easy and simple. It’s the perfect way to preserve tomatoes and (bonus) it freezes exceptionally well. That way, you know you’ll never have to reach out for the store-bought tomato sauce again.
What Tomatoes Are Best For Roasted Tomato Sauce?
I like using Roma tomatoes for this tomato sauce recipe because they don't have a lot of seeds and are very flavorful, though many other types of tomatoes work great for marinara sauce. Here are some great options for what tomatoes to use in your sauce:
- Roma tomatoes (my fave)
- San Marzano
- Margherita
- Big Mama
- Heirloom
- Amish Paste
- Opalka
In general, you can look for what's called a "paste" tomato, which, like the Roma and San Marzano tomatoes, are meatier, have fewer seeds, are firmed, and have less water content, making them flavorful and rich for making sauce.
Why Oven-Roast Tomatoes for Tomato Sauce?
If you want to get more flavor from your tomatoes, roasting them is the way to go! Yes, it’s a slow process, but luckily not a very painful one. Roasting tomatoes (and, well anything, for that matter) intensifies the tomato flavor and brings out a richness you just don't get from cooking them on the stove.
That being said, if you didn't want to roast your tomatoes (or need to speed up the process), you could always cook this sauce on the stove.
What To Use Tomato Sauce In:
Roasted tomato sauce is a great base for so many amazing recipes, like:
- cream of tomato soup
- homemade enchilada sauce
- homemade chili
- ground turkey meal prep
- sweet potato lasagna
- cauliflower pizza
- chicken parmesan meal prep
- eggplant parmesan
It’s so versatile! When making Roasted Tomato Sauce, I tend to get a bit carried away and make a lot of it, all at once. Dustin claims no one in their right mind could use up all that tomato sauce. Little does he know how many recipes call for this Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce! Homemade tomato sauce just tastes so much better than the store-bought stuff and is also much healthier.
How To Store Homemade Tomato Sauce
To store homemade tomato sauce, just add it to a tightly sealed mason jar (like these mason jars) or a re-usable storage bag (like these bags). Properly stored in an air-tight container like a mason jar or sealable bag, homemade tomato sauce can be stored in the fridge for up to 7 days. If you don't get to using it within that timeframe, the good news is that this sauce freezes very well.
How To Freeze Homemade Tomato Sauce
Believe it or not, you can also freeze homemade tomato sauce for up to 6 months.
Here are some tips for how to freeze tomato sauce:
- allow the tomato sauce to fully cool to room temperature before placing in the freezer
- try freezing it in 3-4 cup batches so you can grab it and let it thaw in the fridge overnight when you wanna use it for a specific recipe
- use air-tight re-usable storage bags, like these ones
- Once you have your bags filled with the tomato sauce, lay them flat in the freezer so they freeze as flat as possible to save space. Once they've frozen, you can stand them up and consolidate them
- To thaw frozen tomato sauce, remove from the freezer and either let set in the fridge overnight or place, sealed, in a bowl of cold water to speed up thawing
Why is My Homemade Tomato Sauce Orange (Not Red)?
It is totally normal when you make homemade tomato sauce for it to be a little more orange than red because, when you blend it, you introduce air into the sauce, which turns it from red to orange. Rest assure, it doesn't alter the flavor, just the color. If it really bugs you, you could use try one of the following:
- use canned (no salt added) whole peeled tomatoes instead of fresh tomatoes
- blend the tomatoes, carrot, garlic and onion ahead of time and cook in a sauce pan
- hand mash everything once it’s roasted using a potato masher to avoid introducing extra air into the sauce
- add a little tomato paste to deepen the red color
Personally, I think that’s kinda the beauty of homemade sauce is that the color varies. It tastes the same - even though the color is a little orange.
Roasted Tomato Sauce Recipe Video
Roasted Tomato Sauce
*This post may contain affiliate links for products I use often and highly recommend.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs Roma tomatoes, cut in half
- 5 cloves garlic
- 1 medium yellow onion, cut into large chunks
- 1 carrot, cut into large chunks
- 1 teaspoon sea salt, plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper plus more to taste
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 3-4 basil leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or you can use a large casserole dish.
- Lay out the tomato halves (skin-side up), onion, garlic and carrot and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Try to make this only one layer to allow for maximum roasting. Drizzle olive oil all over.
- Bake for 60 - 75 minutes, or until the edges of the tomatoes and onions begin to pull away from the tomato flesh.
- Allow to cool and then remove the peels using your hands.
- Carefully transfer the roasted contents to a food processor or blender (or a large mixing bowl, if using a stick blender), add the basil leaves and tomato paste, and pulse until smooth.
- Add additional salt and/or pepper, to taste.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This post contains affiliate links for products I use regularly and highly recommend.
kim
Love this recipe! I mix and match whatever tomatoes I have from the garden, even cherry. I don't bother peeling, once they go through the food processor everything is pureed smoothly anyway. I grab fresh basil and oregano from garden and throw fresh into food processor before blending the roasted stuff. Never have luck putting the herbs in oven, crisp and dry out like dust lol.
Sandra Banas
Can I pressure can it?? I have limited freezer space. this sauce is delicious. Would settings be 15 lbs pressure for 15 minutes?? Thank you
Lisalen
Made as recipe was written with all local CT ingredients - and it was delicious! Thank you so much for a great recipe!
Mary
Several years ago, I found your original recipe for Roasted Tomato Sauce, and I loved it! It’s the only sauce I make, and I’ve shared it with many friends. I’m enjoying your updates, and I like that you no longer call for butter or sugar. I still leave the skins on, as in your original recipe. The sauce is a bit chunky with the skins, but do you think it matters, otherwise?
Lacey Baier
Thanks for hanging with me through the healthier transitions 🙂 I personally don't think it matters, but you could always blend further or remove the skins, if you'd prefer.
Mindy
This was excellent! I had an abundance of tomatoes from the garden but they were not Romas so I was worried it would be seedy or not thick enough. I shouldn't have worried. It was delicious; I pureed it with an immersion blender and even the seeds were so soft after roasting they blended right up. I could eat it with a spoon it was that good! Thanks for the recipe and for helping me use up all my tomatoes!