Roasted Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce
In the summer, tomatoes are at their sweetest and are perfect to use in this Roasted Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce. Oven roasting the tomatoes, along with onion and garlic, intensifies the flavors and the addition of fresh basil, is all you need for an everyday sauce to serve over gnocchi or any of your favorite pastas.
For this recipe (salsa di pomodoro fresca, in Italian) I am going to show you how to oven roast tomatoes for the most delicious sauce that could not be easier.
A great use of fresh tomatoes
If you have a bounty of home-grown tomatoes, this is your recipe. Even if your tomatoes are not so ripe, the roasting will concentrate them and soften them to bring out their flavor.
Freezing fresh tomato sauce
This sauce freezes well, and I recommend storing it in zip-top bags. This serves two purposes: first, the bags store flat, so you can stack them and save space; second, if you portion them, you can grab a bag from the freezer whenever you need it. Microwave it or drop the bag into boiling water to defrost, and dinner will be on the table in minutes.
Great for soup
Making this sauce reminds me of my 30 Minute Tomato Basil Soup, which also uses fresh tomatoes. I don’t roast them for the soup, but I could—and they would taste amazing.
Yes, I remove the skin from roasted tomatoes. Once they cool enough to handle, the skin peels off easily. This gives the sauce a smoother texture. Even when blended, a few bits of skin usually remain, so it’s best to remove them.
If you’ve made my Roasted Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce, please leave a star rating in the recipe card. You can also leave a comment or ask a question below.
Roasted Tomato Sauce
Roma tomatoes are roasted with garlic and onions with fresh basil. This delicious sauce can be used in so many recipes.
Ingredients
- 4 pounds (2 kg) Roma tomatoes
- 8 ounces (225 grams) 1 medium onion, peeled and halved
- 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- Olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence * see note
- 10 large fresh basil leaves
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F/200°C.
- Arrange the tomatoes and onion on a baking sheet. Drizzle evenly with olive oil, and sprinkle, salt, pepper and herbs de Provence. Roast in the oven for 40 minutes.
- 15 minutes before the 40 minutes are up, add the garlic cloves.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool.
- When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, carefully remove the peel. Remove the peel of the garlic, you should be able to squeeze them.
- Add everything to a food processor or blender along with the fresh basil leaves and blend in batches until it is the texture of your liking, smooth or slightly chunky.
- Taste for seasoning and adjust to taste.
- Transfer to a container with lid and refrigerate or transfer to ziptop bags, squeeze out the air and freeze.
Notes
If you can’t find this herb mix, a combination of dried basil, thyme, rosemary, sage and parsley
Nutrition Information
Yield
4Serving Size
1Amount Per Serving Calories 141Total Fat 4gSaturated Fat 1gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 3gCholesterol 0mgSodium 277mgCarbohydrates 25gFiber 4gSugar 12gProtein 4g
This nutrition calculation is provided by Nutronix that is only a guideline and not intended for any particular diet.
Janette is a professionally trained chef based in California who channels her passion for cooking into thoughtfully crafted recipes. Her culinary creations are inspired by her English heritage as well as her favorite global cuisines, including Indian and Italian. Connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram for more delicious inspiration. More About Janette…
5 Comments on “Roasted Fresh Tomato Pasta Sauce”
There is nothing like roasted tomato sauce! If you haven’t tried it before, it is a must. Try using Sungold cherry tomatoes. The sauce literally turns out like tomato candy. I slice them in half, add a chopped onion, a chopped red bell pepper, and several cloves of garlic. Drizzle olive oil on the mixture and put into the oven. Turn the mixture a couple of times. When you see the onion and bell pepper starting to brown, then you are done. You can make it a Mexican sauce or Italian sauce depending on the herbs you add. Most people I know just eat it fresh out of the oven. It really is excellent.
As a matter of fact, I started canning my tomatoes after oven roasting them because the oven roasting really made the tomato sauce delicious. I slice the tomatoes in half (my favorite is Early Girl. I then try to empty out the seeds as much as possible over a bowl with a strainer. Place them skin side up on a parchment lined tray and cook at 350 for about 30-45 minutes (when you start seeing the skins start browning). After you’ve removed them from the oven, the skin is easily removed. Throw them in your pot, along with the juice from the strained seeds (don’t want to waste that delicious tomato juice). You can then proceed with waterbath canning as you normally but do make sure to add in the necessary acid because your tomatoes are now much sweeter than they were before roasting. Very much worth the extra effort in canning fresh tomatoes.
I can’t wait to try this version, but tomatoes are out of season now so it will have to wait until next spring/summer. Everyone should try this recipe, especially if you haven’t tried roasting tomatoes for a sauce (or just slurping it up)!
I think I would eat this sauce just by itself. No need for pasta! Tomato sauce recipes that ask for tomatoes to be roasted makes me a very happy eater.
Thank you, I love roasted tomatoes too.
I love roasted veggies and this tomato sauce looks amazing. No more jars needed! Thanks Janette! Pinned!
Thank you as always KC 🙂