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!
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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!
Judith Kossy says
Can I add the basil after defrosting the sauce when I am ready to serve it.
Pamela Reed says
Absolutely!
Janet says
This recipe was so easy and so delicious! I will be making this often. Thank you.
Lorine says
Can you use the handheld blender to mix this up after roasting instead of a food processor? The reason I ask is I do not like to have the seeds in the sauce and wondered if the food processor grinds them down more than the immersion blender. Any insight would be appreciated!
Pamela Reed says
You could! Both work pretty good, just keep the immersion blender on until you have a smooth sauce that you like. Enjoy!
Jan Stephenson says
I have never commented on a recipe before, but I have tell you how excellent this one is. This was so good I wanted to eat it with a spoon! Yes, I added a few Better Boy tomatoes rather than let them go bad, but the majority were cherry tomatoes (Reisentraube variety.) I also added some Nadapeno peppers that I didn’t want to go to waste. But those were the only variation from your recipe. Outstanding! Thank you for sharing!
Holly Christopulos says
I’ve made this recipe several times… it is so good and I grow my cherry tomato’s.
Pamela Reed says
This makes me so happy to hear Holly – thank you! Enjoy the sauce! 🙂
Lisa says
Would you weigh your tomatoes or do you place in measuring cups? Thanks!
Pamela Reed says
Hey Lisa, I just place them in a measuring cup. Enjoy the sauce! 🙂
Karen says
Do you leave the skins on? If you canned this also what did you do for that?
Pamela says
Yes, leave the skins on! No need for any extra work! 🙂 Many people have canned this recipe, check out the couple pages of comments for details! Personally, I love freezing this sauce!
Pat Garska says
My husband made pizza with this sauce and loved it. I roasted pear shaped yellow cherry tomatoes in the toaster oven. He loved it, and is going to make spaghetti next, with vegan meatballs. Thanks for this recipe.
Melissa says
Have you ever canned this recipe? Curious how that would be done
Lauren Start says
I love this recipe! So easy and delicious. It’s my second year making it. Such a great way to use an abundance of cherry tomatoes.
Pamela says
So happy to hear you like it! Thanks for commenting Lauren! 🙂
Nicole says
I do love this recipe. I am rarely surprised when it comes to tomato sauce. It was so simple and one of the best sauces I’ve ever had. Nice job. Thanks for sharing.
Betty says
I followed the recipe exactly and the sauce came out so delicous and sweet! I know it’s going to become a favorite. Thank you!
charlene says
I’m not going to leave stars just yet:) It smells amazing! However, when I tasted it, it has a really bitter taste to it. I’m assuming it’s the seeds in the tomatoes. Straining as we speak to see if I can salvage it. That said, I do plan on trying again with a different batch of tomatoes. I’m sure it will be delicious.
Annie says
I love how easy this recipe is! I have a green thumb, so loads of cherry tomatoes, but am not a natural in the kitchen. When the recipe calls for salt and pepper, I get stuck! I need specific measurements, and have never been able to “wing it”. How much salt and pepper should I use? Even a general guideline would help immensely! Thanks!
Pamela says
Hey Annie, sure, I would start with 1/4 teaspoon salt and a pinch of pepper. I really love to taste the freshness of the tomatoes in this recipe, so it doesn’t need much. After you blend, then taste and if too sweet, add a bit more of each. Hope this helps, enjoy the tomato sauce! 🙂
Karen Ramsey says
This sauce is delicious. I did make a couple of small changes. I added a splash of olive oil, some Italian seasoning and more salt and pepper to cut a bit of the sweet.
Rachael Gildea says
Oh my gosh this is my go to recipe for my garden tomatoes. I can it too! Excellent flavor!
ona says
How can I can this ?
Marion says
Oh my!! This was so good. Instead of using onion powder and garlic salt I added 3 garlic cloves and 1/2 a large onion (cut into 2 chunks) to the tomatoes and roasted in the oven. The onions caramelized beautifully and added wonderful flavour and the garlic was perfect. Used my hand held blender to purée. Mmmmmm.
Pamela says
Yum, sounds delicious Marion! Thank you for commenting, enjoy the tomato sauce!
Jenessa says
I never want to buy store bought tomato sauce again!! Do I have to do anything special to it in order to can it?
Marlene Wilkins says
This is a great way to use up the tomatoes and tastes great. Thanks…
Nors says
It was like tasty summer on a cold winter night. I loooved this sauce!!
Lynn says
This was really tasty and easy. Used yellow cherry tomatoes,and fresh basil, both of which are plentiful in our garden at the moment. The colour was a a bit strange (dull yellow) but didn’t look so strange when mixed through the pasta. The smell during the roasting was so good,, but it was the flavour of the sauce that made this absolutely fantastic. Will definitely make again.
Velda Bottesi says
This was a good recipe, but I added fresh minced garlic and onion while roasting the tomatoes along with salt and pepper. I added the fresh basil before the food processor. Yummy!
Karen says
Very impressed. I have so many cherry tomatoes, and gave tried a number of recipes to use them up..but this is the best and so easy. Will definitely make it again.
Denise says
I absolutely loved this recipe you have changed my life I have not been able to eat spaghetti for a long time due to acid reflux. This will help me and I don’t even have to worry