Hey everyone! A few years ago Mackenzie shared her delicious tomato sauce recipe and it’s SO good that we couldn’t help but reshare it, especially since tomatoes are ripe and the cool fall weather has arrived!
Finding ways to use up summer produce can be a challenge. The window for ripe fruits and veggies is so short! Making tomato sauce is the absolute BEST way to use up all those ripe tomatoes in your garden or at the farmer’s market!
This recipe will make upwards of 7-8 of these batches and freeze them to use throughout the fall and winter. There are a lot of different methods online for homemade tomato sauce that involve peeling tomatoes, but after trial and error, we found it wasn’t worth the fuss! It tastes just as delicious keeping the skin on and it’s SO much easier!
A few people asked if we can the tomatoes, but we find freezing in an airtight container to be the best and easiest storage method. I’ll often use leftover small and large yogurt containers to store the sauce in as they’re the perfect size! Make sure you fill the sauce to the top of the container to avoid freezer burn.
I recommend serving this sauce straight up with your favourite long pasta. Its flavours are SO vibrant and fresh that you don’t need to add anything else to complete this meal. It’s also surprisingly creamy and bursting with flavour. It’s also divine as a base for your pizza! Rest assured you won’t want to buy store-bought tomato sauce again!
The Most Delicious Tomato Sauce You’ll Ever Eat
Ingredients
8 Lbs 8 Garden or Roma tomatoes
1 1 White onion, quartered and sliced into large chunks
8-9 Cloves 8-9 Fresh garlic
1/2 Cup 1/2 Extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup 1/4 Sugar to counteract acidity of tomatoes
Salt & pepper, to taste
1 Cup 1 Fresh basil
Directions
- Preheat oven to 425. Slice your tomatoes into quarters and add to a large roasting pan. Ensure your roasting pan is deep enough that the juices won’t spill over as it starts to cook and break down in the oven!
- Add your onions and garlic on top of the tomatoes, dispersing them across the pan evenly.
- Finally, sprinkle the sugar over top the mixture and drizzle your olive oil on topl. Add a generous amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast in the oven for about 2 hours, mixing halfway through to prevent burning.
- Let cool for 15 minutes. Carefully transfer mixture to high speed blender (or food processor), and blend until sauce is smooth (I find the longer you blend the creamier the sauce!). Add in basil to blender and pulse until chopped and combined (alternatively transfer to a large bowl and mix in basil by hand).
- Using a ladle, transfer tomato sauce into containers. Mark with a sticky note and date so that it’s easy to find and freeze for up to 8 months.
Enjoy!
Mackenzie
I love me some tomato sauce and pasta. It’s too bad my hubs is an Alfredo man, otherwise I’d be making this and serving it every. dang. day!! Great recipe Mackenzie <3
This is genius!!! I can’t wait to try it.
Looks delicious. Do you think coconut sugar (or any other natural sugar alternative) would work in place of the white sugar without compromising the taste of the sauce?
Sounds delish, will be making it this weekend. Thanks!
I do the same but at the end I put it through a colander to get rid of the skins and seeds at the end.
Baking soda can be used to counteract the acidity in the tomatoes. In fact, it can help neutralize it since it is alkaline. Sugar is acidic, so tomato and sugar together make for quite the acidic combination, something our bodies don’t really like. Our bodies run better when more alkaline so the more alkaline you can introduce into your system, (something that can be overdone, but very unlikely our Western diets) the better.
There’s an after taste — GLORIOUS basil. I love it, so so distinct. I could still taste it. I couldn’t wait, I just had to run out to get the tomatoes and make the sauce and followed your instructions. I just finished a big bowl of bucatini with it. It really is the most delicious tomato sauce. Thank you so much, to you and your mom.
What is the yield for this recipe? It reads delicious!
Please make your recipes print friendly. Thanks
This one is print-friendly!!! You just have to click “print” on the top right-hand corner! xo
I agree with the title of this post! I tried it today, and it turned out great and so delicious.
Yummmm!!! So glad you liked it!!! XO
Made a batch this weekend and it is delicious!!! Thank you for sharing your recipe Mackenzie.
OMG!! So delicious!! So easy to make and the house smelled glorious while cooking. It really is the best tomato sauce I ever ate!
Roasting tomatoes for 2 hours at 425? Wouldn’t this be a pan of burnt tomatoes?
We use lots and lots of EVOO!!! XO
Yummy I always wanted to make Tomato sauce being Italian I remember my parents making sauce and it was lot’s of work this is way Easier Thanks a whole bunch .Going to make this sauce ?.
I made this on the weekend and it was delicious….you were right that you will never go back to store bought sauce again! Thank you so much for the recipe, I have passed along to my family and coworkers!
Wooohoooo!! So glad to hear you loved it!!
My Italian grandmother would NEVER use sugar in tomato sauce. She would take a fork and push it into the Baking Soda carton, then swirl the fork in the sauce to cut the acidity.
Made this tonight and it was delish!! Only thing I would reduce is the amount of sugar.
Thank you so much, I’m going to try this sounds simple and quick..
Great recipe! Just made this and its delicious!!
Hoping to try this, is it possible to can with this recipe or is it freezer only?
I just made 150 jars of tomato sauce (tomato pulp and a couple of fresh basil leaves. No skins no seeds)on the weekend, but I am going to try this. And maybe I can use my base sauce and add your ingredients…hmm thinking out loud ; )
So disappointed. I was looking forward to this all weekend. In one hour I went to turn the tomatoes over and they were burnt black! Was the temperature of 425 correct?
Oh no! Make sure to keep a close eye on them, they burn quick! xo Jilly
This recipe is a keeper. Made it last year and will make it again this year. However, 1/4 cup of sugar was just too much for me. It tasted very very sweet. This time, I will be reducing the amount by half if not more. Thank you for this easy and simple recipe! Great way to use up all those tomatoes!