ROASTED Cherry Tomato Sauce is sweet, creamy and SO EASY to make! This is the best recipe for growing garden tomatoes! You can serve immediately on pasta, can it or freeze it! Find out why thousands of people love this sauce!
The Best Cherry Tomato Sauce
My life has officially been taken over by tomatoes. Is there anything else to talk about except tomatoes right now? Tomato this, tomato that, do the tomato dance. If you’re as obsessed as I am, you’ll definitely want to check out my Slow Cooker Cherry Tomato Sauce and Pickled Cherry Tomatoes too — more tomato goodness for your kitchen!
This is my absolute favorite cherry tomato sauce. I’m a bit biased, but it’s been made by thousands of people, so trust those people and make it too! Pretty much once you make it, you’ll come back to it time and time again. And if you’re looking for a sauce made with bigger tomatoes, you’ll love my Roma Tomato Sauce — it’s another easy family favorite!
This homemade sauce doesn’t require you to simmer over the stove for 2 hours. The key to this recipe is first we oven roast the tomatoes — oh yeah, baby. Then after that, we throw them in a food processor with some fresh basil and season them. Then it’s made! It’s that easy.
Summer bookmarking! Need more tomato recipes – I have so many for you! Try my classic Stewed Tomatoes and Diced Tomatoes next.
How to Make Cherry Tomato Sauce
Gather your cherry tomatoes. Take the stems off and then wash them.
Put them in a pan, single layer. I was making a few batches so I had multiple pans.
Drizzle your olive oil over the tomatoes. Take a picture and completely miss the olive oil coming out of the bottle. Oops.
Sprinkle your onion powder over the tomatoes. Take a picture and completely miss the onion powder being sprinkled. Oops.
Note: If you’d like to, you can sub 1/4 cup fresh chopped onion instead of onion powder.
Also add a clove of garlic. No need to mince it, the food processor will do the work for you at the end.
Bake for 35 minutes until your tomatoes are all wrinkly and bursting.
Let them cool for a few minutes, then put them in the food processor with your other ingredients. Give it a few pulses until creamy, it doesn’t take more than that!
And you are left with some creamy, amazing smelling cherry tomato sauce!
This makes 3 cups of sauce. Feel free to use immediately after, put in the fridge for tomorrow, or freeze (in a freezer bag) for a few months later.
How to Freeze Tomato Sauce
Once the sauce cools down, add the sauce into freezer bags. I like to separate each bag into 2-3 cups of sauce, knowing that’s how much I’ll need fora recipe.
Whenever I freeze sauce, puree, diced/stewed tomatoes, I always put in a freezer bag and lay flat while pressing it out, so it’s as thin as possible. Then once it’s frozen, I stand it up. This saves space and lets you have a better organized freezer.
To deforst, place in the refrigator the night before. Alternatively you could defrost it in the microwave in a few minutes.
I hope you enjoy this Roasted Creamy Cherry Tomato Sauce – it’s one of my favorite Summer recipes!
Pin for later:
Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
PrintIngredients
- 4 cups cherry tomatoes stems removed
- 1 clove garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/3 cup fresh basil
- salt + pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
- Spread tomatoes and clove of garlic in a single layer in a pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with onion powder.
- Bake for 35 minutes, your tomatoes should be wrinkly and bursting.
- Let cool for a few minutes, then put tomatoes in food processor. Add fresh basil and salt + pepper to taste in food processor.
- Blend to the sauce is smooth and creamy. Enjoy!
Mary says
Pamela we can never have enough tomatoes sauce in my house. This is a great recipe to use up all those yummy tomatoes that are coming our way in the summer. Your sauce is my feature this week at the Sweet Inspiration Link Party!
Minakshi bajpai says
My kiddos love to eat pastas. But we never use this sauce for pasta. Its so easy to make as you show in ur pix. Will sure try this at home. It looks healthy if it can be make at home
Leslie says
I’m pretty sure that pasta is my own love language. Definitely going to give this a try sometime soon. Thanks so much for sharing at the #happynowlinkup!
patti @ pandora's box says
This looks delish and I will def try it!!
Sim @ Simslife.co.uk says
Love, love, love cherry tomatoes – this will make for a super yummy pasta sauce! Sim xx #ManicMondayBlogHop
Gentle Joy Homemaker says
Your tomatoes look wonderful! I have used cherry tomatoes for sauces and I also loved it… your seasoning idea is great. Thank you.
Lynn Tucker says
I am trying several different types of cherry tomatoes this year so I hope ones like Sungold and black cherry would work for this too! I am going to experiment for sure, this recipe sounds fantastic!
Pamela says
Hey Lynn, this will definitely taste delicious with a variety of tomatoes – enjoy!
Sharon@BlueWillowHouse says
Definitely going to try your oven roasted creamy cherry tomato sauce. It looks and sounds delicious. Thank you for sharing your recipe at the Snickerdoodle Create~Bake~Make link party! Pinning
Theresa says
Can’t wait until Tomato season. Thanks for joining us at the Inspiration Spotlight party. Shared.
Mama Grace says
mmm garlic powder rather than garlic is interesting. #TrafficJamWeekend
Jennifer-Beforetheyregrown says
This looks like a great tomato sauce! A nice change to regular tomato sauce and you can freeze it to which is an added bonus!
Lindsay says
Love using cherry tomatoes instead of regular ones. I use them in salsa. I will have to try this. I agree it makes it sweeter 🙂
Christine says
I just made this and only have maybe a cup and a half. And it doesn’t look creamy like yours. I followed the directions exactly. ?
Pauline says
Just made this recipe with tomatoes from my sisters prolly tunnel. Delicious recipe, thanks
Pamela says
Thanks for letting me know you liked it Pauline! Enjoy!
Amy says
I have an abundance of cherry tomatoes this year, I am going to give this a try.
Cassandra says
Is this recipe cannable as well?
Pamela says
Hey Cassandra, this isn’t a 100% canning recipe because it uses olive oil in it (more indepth discussion here: http://foodinjars.com/2011/11/canning-101-is-it-safe-to-can-products-that-contain-some-oil/). If you do some tweaking (keeping the spices and ratios) I think you could easily turn it into a canning recipe! Enjoy!
Joanne says
OMG! Just made this and it is to die for….trying not to eat it straight out of the bowl. Thank you so much from Vancouver, Canada!
Pamela says
Hahaha, I love that! Thanks for making and letting me know Joanne! 🙂
Suzi says
Made this sauce time now with my fresh cherry tomatoes. Divine!!!!
Had to eat fresh the first time. Now I am going to freeze for later.
Thank you.
Pamela says
Happy to hear this Suzi! Enjoy!
Anthony says
So delicious! I was in Costco and they had a sale on cherry tomatoes and I wanted to buy some, but not have them go to waste. I did a search in there and saw this recipe, so I decided to buy them. I was not disappointed! This is a great sauce and I’ll definitely make them again!
Pamela says
Thanks Anthony! I hope you keep enjoying this sauce recipe for many more years to come!
Kirsty says
What an awesome sounding recipe. Exactly what I have been looking for, to use up my current Aussie summer abundance of cherry tomatoes. My neighbour has some lovely basil growing, so I might ask her for some. In return I’ll gladly hand over a bottle of this sauce. Thanks again, Kirsty xx
Kenneth R. Stock says
Very nice and simple recipe to use up all of my cherry tomatoes in a hearty sauce.
Pamela says
Thanks Kenneth!
MJ says
Hope you’re not getting tired of praise because your recipe was a godsend this year when I searched for recipes. I planted two cherry tomato plants and ended up with 7 from volunteers — I’ll never have to plant again! Thanks to you, I no longer worry about wasting tomatoes and can stop bugging my friends to take them! As a few others have said, I added some fresh garlic to the maters while they roasted and since I had already used up the basil in my garden I added pesto and a dash of red pepper flakes to the mix. So easy! So delicious! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Pamela says
Hey MJ, comments always make me happy, especially when one loves a recipe! I’m so happy you enjoyed this sauce, I love that fresh garlic that you added, I bet your home smelled great! Cherry tomato plants have a mind of their own, I hope you grow just as many next year! More sauce to enjoy! 🙂
christina says
I roasted 5 cloves of garlic at the same time and added to the mix = this is an amazing recipe…I thank you!
Pamela says
I am jealous of how great your kitchen must smell now! Glad you enjoyed Christina!
Spencer says
Can this sauce be put in cans for long term storage?
Pamela says
I don’t see why not, have fun!
Spencer says
I ask because I know it’s no good to put oil in a water bath for canning, something to do with not enough acidity. How does this recipe taste without the oil?
Pamela says
I’ve never made them without oil as it really helps those cherry tomatoes melt down nicely in the oven. The recipe calls for olive oil for the ultimate recipe, but if you want to do without I think it would still taste great.
Abby says
Delightful sauce 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing.
Cathy says
Got my masher out and 2 minutes left in the oven. Added a few more spices and it smells delish. Thanks for the quick reply! Might have to get my blender back from my recently graduated college son. There goes the buzzer! Excited.
Cathy says
I have thousands of red cherry and pear shaped little yellow cherrys. Not sure what hubby was thinking.
What I don’t have is a food processor or blender!
I was going to open a jar of Ragu then a lightbulb went off and I found this recipe.
Any suggestions on if I can still make this?
Hope you do butternut squash…I have a huge crop this year.
Thanks.
Pamela says
Hey Cathy, sure you can still do this, it just won’t be as smooth, but just as delicious. There’s 2 ways you can do this. 1. When they come out of the oven, let them cool and then take a potato masher or a spoon and mash them as good as you can. 2) Don’t do anything to them, serve or freeze them as is. I often do #2 on pasta and it’s delicious, you get the tomato sauce and olive oil all in one!
Shalimar says
Stumbled upon this and excited to try! Our garden is bursting with cherry tomatoes this year
Michelle says
Modified this recipe for my pear tomatoes and added some zucchini to hide more veggies from my kids. So yummy!!!
Pamela says
Yum, love that sneaky veggie method! Glad you enjoyed!
French Girl says
This is the most gorgeous pasta sauce! I love it! Thanks so much for sharing it!
Pamela says
Thank you!