Simple Roasted Tomato Sauce
This roasted tomato sauce is one of my go-to recipes! It's super easy, quick, uses just a handful of ingredients, and has tons of flavor. Use it on pizza, pasta, meatballs, chicken Parmesan, or any of your other favorite Italian dishes!
Ingredients
- 3 pounds tomatoes (a mix of small & large)
- 6 large garlic cloves, peeled
- 2 small shallots, peeled and quartered
- 2 Tablespoons good-quality olive oil
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, more or less, to taste
- 8 sprigs of fresh thyme
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, roughly torn
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
- Kosher salt & freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
- Sugar, to taste (if needed)
Equipment
- Rimmed sheet pan
- Blender or food processor (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Remove the stems from all of the tomatoes. Remove the cores of the large tomatoes and cut them in half.
- Place the tomatoes, garlic cloves, and shallots on a sheet pan. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with the oregano, red pepper flakes, and a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Arrange the tomatoes skin-side up. Sprinkle the thyme sprigs over the top.
- Bake for about 40-45 minutes until the large tomatoes are soft and the small tomatoes have burst. Stir the basil into the tomatoes and roast another 5 minutes until the tomatoes are fragrant and have a few charred spots.
- Remove the tomatoes from the oven and add the butter. Toss until it’s melted and glossy. Remove the thyme sprigs from the sauce and discard.
- Blend the sauce - Transfer the tomato mixture to a blender. Blend until you reach your desired texture. (I prefer a smoother sauce, but you can just pulse the blender a few times if you prefer a chunkier sauce.)
- Make the sauce by hand - Carefully pinch the skins off of the large roasted tomatoes (they should already be loose). You can leave the skins on the small tomatoes. Scoop out the seeds, if you prefer a smoother sauce. Transfer the tomato mixture to a large bowl and use a potato masher to smash the sauce. Be gentle, it may spray a bit!
- Pour the sauce in a 24 ounce jar or container. Seal and refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
For easy clean up, line your sheet pan with parchment paper. This recipe doesn't make a huge mess but it still helps!
Add more pepper flakes for a spicy sauce. Leave it out if you're sensitive to spice.
For a smoother sauce, remove the skins from the tomatoes. They should just pinch off. You can also scoop out the seeds, but I usually don't!
Be careful when blending the hot sauce, or the heat could create pressure and spray out of the top! I like to remove the center cap from the lid of the blender to prevent it from spraying.
If you're making the sauce by hand, dice the shallots and basil to make it easier to mash. Otherwise, you'll have large chunks of onion and basil in the sauce.
This recipe will serve between 6-8 people with pasta. You can easily double or triple the sauce.
Serving: 1cup, Calories: 211kcal, Carbohydrates: 21.6g, Protein: 3.9g, Fat: 14.4g, Saturated Fat: 3.9g, Cholesterol: 10mg, Sodium: 447mg, Potassium: 819mg, Fiber: 4.1g, Sugar: 0.2g, Calcium: 63mg, Iron: 3mg
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