Easy Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce
This oven roasted tomato sauce is so flavorful and super simple to make!
It’s pretty much the easiest homemade tomato sauce you’ll ever make! No boiling, peeling, or canning involved! You can use any type of tomato, from cherry, to roma, to beefsteak, or a mixture of all kinds.
We’ve been enjoying this sauce using our homegrown tomatoes and garlic for many years now and it’s still a family favorite.
What you’ll need:
Equipment
- Oven safe glass pans (8×8 or 9×13), to roast your tomatoes
- Colander, for draining the roasted tomatoes
- Heat-safe bowl, to help with draining
- Large slotted metal spoon, for scooping
- Blender or food processer, for pureeing
- Freezer-safe containers, for storing
Ingredients
See ‘Customizing’ section below for notes on how to change up just about every part of this recipe. Remember, any tomato you have grown can be used. Yes, even cherry tomatoes!
For an 8×8 pan of tomatoes as shown below:
- abt 16 Roma tomatoes (or any combination to fill a pan)
- 8 to 16 cloves garlic, to taste
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- (optional) 1/4 + 1/8 tsp Italian seasoning, to taste
How to make
Start by preheating your oven to 375 F.
Wash the tomatoes well, then cut out their tops. When you slice off the very top, you’ll see that inside the tomato, right under where the stem was, there is a green core in the middle- cut this out too, leaving a little dip inside the tomato. No need to remove any of the rest of the insides!
Tuck your tomatoes into the glass baking dish, lining them up inside in a single layer with the cut ends facing up, until all the dish is full. As homegrown tomatoes can vary in size, it may take more or less tomatoes to fill your dish.
Tuck a whole peeled garlic clove inside every other tomato, or if you’re a garlic lover, tuck a clove inside every tomato!
Drizzle the olive oil over the top, making sure you got at least a little on each tomato. After that, just slide the pan into your oven, and leave it to roast for at least an hour. It’ll make your kitchen very aromatic!
You’re looking for the tomatoes to be soft and blistering, and for the garlic to roast up soft. For this batch shown it took about 1 hour & 15 minutes for the tomatoes and garlic to roast nicely, but time will vary depending on types of tomatoes used.
Once finished roasting, remove pan from the stove to cool a bit on the counter or stovetop. Not long- just set a timer for 10 to 15 minutes or so, just so things aren’t so scalding hot.
Transfer the tomatoes and garlic from the pan to a colander (placed over a bowl that can take the heat), with a slotted spoon. Leave to drain for 10 minutes.
Once finished draining, move tomatoes and garlic from the colander to a blender or food processer. Blend (or process) until desired smoothness is obtained, adding seasonings to taste.
This recipe makes about 1 1/3 – 1 1/2 cups of sauce- an exact amount cannot be given, as homegrown tomatoes can vary wildly in size.
Storing
Because this recipe is frozen, not canned, we don’t have to worry about safe levels of acidity, or messing around with canners and the like!
Simply spoon out your finished sauce into freezer-safe containers that can be secured with lids, and stash in the freezer. Freeze for 9 to 12 months.
To thaw frozen sauce, place it in the refrigerator the day before, or gently heat in a saucepan for quicker results. Sauce stored in the refrigerator should be used within 2-3 days.
Customizing
Tomatoes
Any type of tomato can be used to make this sauce- from cherry tomatoes all the way up to beefsteaks! We used Romas for this batch only because that’s what we happened to have a glut of at the time.
Garlic
The amount of garlic in this recipe- 8 good-sized cloves from homegrown garlic- is very much adjustable to your personal taste. Garlic lovers can feel free to stick a clove of garlic in every tomato!
Seasonings
The seasonings of this sauce are all done to taste, and that gives you plenty of freedom to play around!
Salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, oregano, thyme, basil, marjoram… if there’s a particular flavor or seasoning you like in your tomato sauces, you can add it in this one! Simply add small amounts of the seasonings at a time, blend them in well, and taste. It’s better to add just a little at a time, rather than accidentally add too much.
Other Veggies
Some years we’ve thrown a few slices of bell peppers and onions into the roasting pan too. It’s also yummy! Since we’re freezing this sauce, not canning, we don’t have to worry about messing up the acidity level.
Easy Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce
Equipment
- Glass Baking Pan, 8×8 or 9×13
- Colander
- Heat Safe Bowl
- Large Slotted Metal Spoon
- Blender or Food Processor
- Freezer Safe Containers
Ingredients
- Abt 16 roma or other fresh tomatoes
- 8 to 16 cloves of garlic
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- 1/4 tsp salt to taste
- 1/4 tsp black pepper to taste
- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp Italian seasoning optional, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Wash and core tomatoes.
- Fill pan with prepared tomatoes.
- Tuck a garlic clove inside half of the tomatoes. Use more garlic for a stronger flavor, less garlic for a lighter taste.
- Drizzle the olive oil over top of the tomatoes.
- Cook until tomatoes are soft and blistering; and garlic is fork tender.
- Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, or until easy to handle.
- Drain in a colander for 10+ minutes.
- Move the tomatoes and garlic to a blender or food processor and blend/process until desired smoothness.
- Add the salt, pepper, and seasoning, blend, and taste test the results.
- Continue adjusting seasonings and tasting until the desired level of flavor is reached.
- Spoon the finished sauce into freezer containers.
- Freeze for 9 to 12 months.
