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.
Lisa
Looks delicious, but I have very limited freezer space. Is it possible to can this recipe using a hot water bath as opposed to a pressure canner?
Suzanne
You have to use a pressure canner for tomato sauces. You can hot water bath whole tomatoes alone but you need a lot of lemon juice added to bring the acid level up, and in my opinion, that ruins the tomato flavors.
Dustin
We should get some of our tomato sauce back in the freezer.
Lacey Baier
Yes, we totally should!!
Jessica
I added chopped grilled back bacon to the skillet after the roasting and blending. (added also celery n beet root to the roasting) ... It turned out really well with pplp saying its the best pasta sauce they have ever tasted! Awesome! Used a mixed of sweet white and purple onions.
Lacey Baier
That's so awesome. I love the creative additions you used!
Jennifer Terwilliger
This was pretty amazing. I used fresh ripe tomatoes from the garden, a combination of varietals, a bit more crushed garlic and didn't remove the skins before blending. Oh, a small pour of marsala and lots of fresh thyme during the roasting stage. DELICIOUS!! Then I browned some italian sausage and ground beef and added the sauce. Super good. Loved this recipe. I served it with spinach linguini. Thanks for a great recipe!
Lacey Baier
WOOOOOOOOOT!!! Loved reading this 🙂
Jean
Very good and actually fun to make.....
Will do this over and over again...
thanks
Lacey Baier
Yay, exactly what I wanna hear, Jean 🙂
gary
i noticed the thyme was to be added before and after the roasting. As I have not made this yet, was curious if I was to add the same amount of thyme twice, or was this an oversight? Looks great and I have a whole bunch of tomatoes to use up. Thank you...
Lacey Baier
Thanks for catching that! It was an oversight. Just add the thyme prior to roasting and not once you remove from the oven. Thanks!
Becka
About a month ago I had SEVERAL packages of Roma Tomatoes that were about to go bad-as I desperately searched the Internet for a sauce recipe I came across this page. So simple and soooo delicious! Thank you so much for sharing!
Adrea
I had a very late tomato crop this year from a few of my plants. I decided to use your recipe to ensure that they did not go to waste. My sauce came out great! I added a little balsamic vinegar during the roasting process but otherwise followed the instructions. Thanks for the delicious and easy recipe.
df
With an abundance of tomatoes and too little time for the kitchen tonight, I set my teenager onto making this, and was it ever good! He and we loved it more than you can imagine after a cold evening working outside on an urgent project.
bob
i just made this tonight...i seeded but did not peel the tomatoes and also added a bit of carrot...then fresh basil in the food processor...butter added when reheating the portion i am had tonight (froze the rest)...served on top of homemade linguini with parmesan and a hunk o bread...simple pleasures
Karen
This is almost MY recipe! I don't use the carrot, but will try. I drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar,no sugar. I freeze batches of this. I have used brandywine tomatoes with good results too.
Judi
FYI... I tried roasting two kinds of tomatoes...the roma's we're sweet and yummy even without any sugar. The early girls a little bitter so I added maple sugar crystals and that helped a lot.Great fun...thanks for all your help.
Judi
Pecorino I'm unfamilar with that cheese...tell me about it. I'll let you know how it turns out won't be for a while...planning ahead.
Lacey Baier
Hi Judi,
Pecorino is similar to Parmesan but has more "bite" to it. It's a stronger flavor. Very tasty 🙂
Judi
Hi Lacey, I'm wanting to make a vegetarian casserole for a potluck and I don't eat pasta. I'm wondering what you think about using this sauce over spaggetti squash, with a layer of eggplant and parmessan cheese? The sauce and squash may be to sweet to pair together, what do you think?
Lacey Baier
I think that actually sounds fantastic. You could maybe add a little more Parmesan or pecorino to offset the sweetness, but I'd bet it'll be tasty 🙂
Nancy at Coneflower Ranch
I just finished pureeing the sauce out of the oven and it's fantastic. Looking forward to using it in other ways including my vodka sauce, awesome!
Shelley
How do you make your Vodka sauce? Sounds yummy!