In this roasted cherry tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, onions, and garlic get caramelized and jammy in the oven, intensifying the flavors and creating a full-flavored rich sauce with lots of complexity. This homemade sauce is a delicious way to use up your cherry tomatoes, and it's an easy one pan recipe with just 10 minutes of active prep time. It's a luscious and versatile tomato sauce that can be used on everything from pasta and pizza to meatballs and sandwiches.
I was so blown away by the delicious complex flavor of this sauce that I had to force myself to stop eating it straight from the jar.
If you have a large amount of cherry tomatoes to use up, this roasted cherry tomato pasta sauce is a mouth-watering way to serve them, and it freezes really well.
It's an easy and versatile sauce that pairs beautifully with pasta, meatballs, or even pizza.
Jump to:
⭐️ Why This Sauce is the Best
- Roasted cherry tomatoes, onions, and garlic get caramelized and jammy in the oven, intensifying the flavors and creating a full-flavored rich sauce with lots of complexity.
- Quick and easy one (sheet) pan recipe with just 10 minutes of active prep time.
- An excellent way to use up your summer cherry tomatoes!
- Versatile cherry tomato sauce recipe that can be used on so many things, like pasta, pizza, meatballs, and sandwiches
- Healthy vegetarian spaghetti sauce recipe that's naturally dairy-free/vegan, gluten-free, high in fiber, and full of nutrients like potassium, vitamin C, and vitamin K.
🍅 Ingredient Notes
- Cherry tomatoes - You will need about 6 cups for this recipe. I used a mixture of red, orange, and yellow cherry tomatoes, which is why my sauce does not look bright red.
- Yellow onion - You can substitute a red onion or 3-4 medium shallots for a similar flavor profile.
- Garlic - Adds deep flavor and balances out the acidity of the tomatoes
- Fresh basil leaves - Adds fresh summery herbyness
- Fresh thyme - Provides complexity to our delicious sauce
- Red pepper flakes - These are completely optional, but I love a subtle spicy bite in my tomato sauce.
📝 Variations & Substitutions
- Use frozen cherry tomatoes - You can roast them straight from the freezer, but you should add 10-15 minutes to the cooking time (remove the other ingredients from the pan at the 1 hour mark).
- Grape tomatoes - Sometime it's hard to tell the difference between grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, but grape tomatoes have a thicker skin and are not as sweet as cherry tomatoes. That said, you can absolutely use them here for a very similar-tasting sauce.
- Spicy sauce: Add 1-2 teaspoons of red pepper flakes for a spicy tomato sauce.
- Herbs: If you're not a fan of basil and/or thyme, you can swap in rosemary or oregano for a different herby flavor.
🔪 How to Make Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Onto a large baking sheet, place the cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour olive oil over all ingredients, and stir with a large spoon, making sure to coat all of the ingredients really well with olive oil. Spread vegetables out evenly.
Roast for 1 hour, until the tomatoes have burst and shriveled, and onions are caramelized.
Carefully transfer half of ingredients on sheet pan (you will purée your sauce in two batches) into a food processor or blender. Make sure that you scrape off all the crunchy bits stuck on the pan - that's flavor! Add fresh basil (and red pepper flakes, if using) and blend until you reach your desired consistency and texture.
Transfer sauce to a medium bowl and purée the remaining ingredients. Pour sauce into canning jars and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, or in the freezer for up to 3 months. You will have about 3 ½ cups of sauce.
👩🏼🍳 Expert Tips
- Storage: Store your sauce (in an airtight container) in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- How to freeze: After your sauce has completely cooled, pour it into quart-sized freezer bags (or freeze it in glass jars, leaving room at the top to allow for expansion) and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw, place in the fridge overnight.
- How to reheat sauce: Pour sauce into a skillet over medium-low heat for 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until heated through.
- Thicken it up. If your sauce turns out too watery, read my post on how to thicken pasta sauce.
- Choose your consistency. You can make your sauce thick and chunky, or very smooth and thin; there's no wrong way to eat it. The longer you purée it, the thinner and smoother it will become.
- Can it! This sauce is meant to be stored in the refrigerator or freezer and is NOT shelf-stable. If you want to make this sauce using the water bath canning method, check out these easy instructions on how to create shelf-stable tomato sauce.
- Double it. You will end up with about 3 ½ cups of total sauce, but you can easily double or triple the recipe if you have a lot of cherry tomatoes to use up.
🍝 How to Serve Your Sauce
Despite the fact that I could eat an entire bowl of this rich and luscious sauce as-is, there are so many ways to serve it. Here are some suggestions:
- Pair it with pasta for an easy weeknight dinner or use it to make lasagna
- Drizzle it over any cooked protein, like fish, beans, tofu, or chicken
- Use it as a condiment for sandwiches
- Serve it with meatballs
- Use it for pizza sauce
- Spread it on crusty bread
💬 Frequently Asked Questions
Turn them into tomato sauce by roasting with onions, garlic, herbs and olive oil. It intensifies their flavor and transforms them into a rich and bold-flavored sauce.
Yes, to freeze, place them in a freezer-safe bag and store in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Cherry tomatoes don't need to be peeled to make sauce. In fact, the tomato skin contains flavonols, which are plant-based antioxidants. However, if you really want to peel them, here are instructions for how to peel cherry tomatoes.
🍽 Related Posts
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also stay in touch with us through social media by following us on Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, and Facebook.
Subscribe to my email newsletter to get my FREE Guide on Money Saving Tips on Buying Groceries, and get new recipes delivered to your inbox!
Oven Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce Recipe
Equipment
- 1 Food processor or blender
Ingredients
- 2 pounds cherry tomatoes, stems removed (about 6 cups)
- 1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, smashed and skins removed
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme, stems removed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 handful fresh basil leaves
- pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Onto a large baking sheet, place the cherry tomatoes, onion, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Pour olive oil over all ingredients, and stir with a large spoon, making sure to coat all of the ingredients really well with olive oil. Spread vegetables out evenly.
- Roast for 1 hour, until the tomatoes have burst and shriveled, and onions are caramelized.
- Carefully transfer half of ingredients on sheet pan (you will purée your sauce in two batches) into a food processor or blender. Make sure that you scrape off all the crunchy bits stuck on the pan - that's flavor! Add fresh basil (and red pepper flakes, if using) and blend until you reach your desired consistency and texture.
- Transfer sauce to a medium bowl and purée the remaining ingredients.
- Pour sauce into canning jars and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Or, store it in the freezer (make sure to leave at least 1-inch of space at the top of the jar for expansion) for up to 3 months. You will have about 3 ½ cups of sauce.
Video
Notes
-
- Storage: Store your sauce (in an airtight container) in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
-
- How to freeze: After your sauce has completely cooled, pour it into quart-sized freezer bags (or into glass jars, leaving space at the top for expansion) and store in the freezer for up to 3 months. To thaw, place in the fridge overnight.
-
- Choose your consistency. You can make your sauce thick and chunky, or very smooth and thin; there's no wrong way to eat it. The longer you purée it, the thinner and smoother it will become.
-
- Double it. You will end up with about 3 ½ cups of total sauce, but you can easily double or triple the recipe if you have a lot of cherry tomatoes to use up.
- Serve it with pasta, meatballs, or use it as pizza sauce. Check out my recent post for more ideas on how to use leftover pasta sauce!
Bsrb
I love how many uses there are for this sauce!
MaryAnne
Same! I added it to a cheese sandwich over the weekend!
Jenny
Let me start by saying, I very rarely leave reviews for anything. Something has to be exceedingly wonderful, or exceedingly horrible for me to leave a review . That being said, this is hands-down, the best sauce I have ever made! I have been making sauce from fresh tomatoes for years, but nothing I have made has ever tasted like this! Perfectly sweet, savory, smoky, all at the same time in a perfect balance. And it was so easy! Roast, throw in basil, purée. That’s it! done! My son, who is a major “foodie”, said this sauce was better than restaurant quality. I can’t wait to try your other recipes. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
MaryAnne
Hi Jenny, thank you so much! 😊 I also love this sauce, and could honestly slurp it from a bowl on a daily basis. 😂 Thanks for taking the time to leave such a kind review!