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.
Blair
Smells, looks & tastes delicious! Thanks for a great sauce recipe!
Blair
I'm almost ready to pull by roasting pan out of the oven. I had a mix of tomatoes from the garden including yellow ones and was worried about the final colour of the sauce - so I included 1 red beet to the roasting pan. The beet will add a nice deep red to the sauce and I bet a nice flavour too. I'll keep you posted on the results!
Kathy Baier
Hi Lacey. Can I "can" this sauce rather than freeze?
Lacey Baier
Hey Kathy! You know, I've never tried canning any of my sauces but I'd bet it would be fine. If you try it, would you let me know how it goes? That's a great idea! I usually just freeze them, but canning is great for long term storage and tasty gifts 🙂
Jennifer
Hi, i just baked mine and will finish iit in the morning. I used tin foil and wondered if it will adversely affect the flavor. I noticed hard bits of thyme that bugged me a little, maybe they will soften up later. As those before mentioned it smells delicious. I also wondered why carrots?
Hilary
I did this today with Romas from my garden. Absolutely fantastic! I put the garlic cloves in a foil packet with a drop of olive olive to keep them from getting dry or hard. I put the packet on the pan with the rest of the vegetables. I did everything else just as you suggested. Amazing!
Jess
Hello!
This recipe looks delicious and I cannot wait to try it! If you put the garlic cloves inside the tomatoes while roasting, they will not dry out as quickly, plus it infuses the tomatoes with garlic, yum!
kelly
How long is the frozen sauce good for?
Sarah
I am trying this tonight! I have been looking for homemade sauce and yours is the best yet. All the reviews were super helpful and I am excited to go home and get started. One question....how long should I let it cook, after I blend together in the food processor? I was thinking about putting it in the crock pot and letting it cook for a few hours. Is this a good idea?
Les
I found this to taste more like a roasted tomato soup.
Lacey Baier
I'm sorry to hear it didn't turn out for you, Les. Did you follow the directions exactly?
Marcy
This is in my oven right now!! Yum yum, can hardly wait.
Julie
HI Lacy! I just discovered your blog! I love it! I was looking for some tips on how to make a tomato sauce without taking the skins off and I found it! I just went to the Farmer's Market for some tomatoes and will be making a sauce. I will post pics! Thanks~~
Julie
Lacey Baier
Glad to help, Julie! I've never seen the need to remove the skins if you're just going to puree it anyway. Enjoy!
Kristi
Heard about this recipe via a friend who made it and loved it. We just made it tonight with my bumper crop of tomatoes. I roasted it 65 minutes but may have been too long as some of my garlic was hard which I threw away but I had doubled it based on recmmdtn from friend so we were still good, and after food proc, the sauce was quite thick, but DELISH! No worries, thinned it out with about a cup of veg broth, and put it all over homemade pasta. We had made marinara a few weeks ago with canned tomatoes and thought it was good, but this recipe far outweighed it. This was wonderful. A must do, and SO EAsY!!! Thank you! PS - I forgot to add the sugar and butter in the end, and didn't think it was missing anything so I think we'll save the calories and fat, and go as is.
Lacey Baier
Thanks so much for the review of this recipe, Kristi. I'm glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Yeomyung
I just made pasta with your roasted tomato sauce and it was a huge success. It's hard to find Roma tomatoes in Korea, so I just used whatever tomato I had at home and skipped dried thyme and fresh basil because I don't have them (used dried basil). Also skipped sugar because I forgot, but I didn't notice until now. I added two hot peppers and I think it had a nice kick to it.
Thanks so much for this recipe, and I'll be making this over and over again.
Thanks!!
Lacey Baier
I'm glad you enjoyed the sauce -- changes and all 🙂
Kathy Baier
Lacey, Lacey, Lacey - I LOVE THIS!! It's the first time I've made it. Rob has a bumper crop of NJ hearty beefsteak tomatos and we had to figure out something to do with some of them today. I am SO glad we used two pounds of them for this yummy, full-bodied sauce. You ROCK!!
Lacey Baier
Kathy, Kathy, Kathy - I LOVE your comments 🙂
Amanda
Making this as I type and man does that wonderful smell make me hungry! I do believe there is going to be some chicken parm in this family's dinner plans tonight:)
Lacey Baier
Yay! I hope it was great, Amanda. It sure sounds good to me! Did you try my Chicken Parmesan recipe also?