Roasted Tomato Sauce Recipe

Homemade tomato sauce made with fresh tomatoes is one of the great joys of summer, but even out-of-season tomatoes taste amazing when you roast them before turning them into sauce. Roasting fresh tomatoes brings out their natural tangy, sweet notes for a robustly flavored sauce that is great on pasta, as a dipping sauce for a grilled cheese, in lasagna, chicken parm, or eggplant parm, and any other recipe that calls for tomato sauce.

The Best Tomatoes for Roasted Tomato Sauce

For complex flavors, use two or more types of tomato. Roma tomatoes have tangy garden-fresh flavor, dense flesh, and low water content, all of which makes them an excellent choice for sauces. Pair Roma tomatoes or other plum tomatoes with sweeter cherry tomatoes or grape tomatoes. Use heirloom tomatoes for their rich flavor and beautiful colors.

Tips for the Best Roasted Tomato Sauce

• Keep your tomatoes from getting soggy: To reduce water content in your tomatoes, you can core them before roasting, or simply roast them for a bit longer until they are fairly dry. Starting with firmer, less watery tomatoes such as Romas also makes for less soggy sauce with a more concentrated flavor.
• Don't use aluminum: When choosing a pan for roasting, steer clear of bare aluminum, which can give tomatoes a bitter flavor. Stainless steel is a better choice.
• Use a food mill: If you have a food mill, now is the time to pull it out. That's because food mills remove the seeds and skins from the tomatoes, which makes for a smoother sauce. If you don't have a mill, you can simply whir the tomatoes in your food processor or blender—it will still be delicious.
  
• Make the recipe your own: The ingredients in this sauce can easily be altered to suit your taste. Instead of Italian seasoning, use 3/4 teaspoon each of dried oregano and basil and 1/4 teaspoon each of dried crumbled rosemary and dried thyme. If you aren't a fan of onions, feel free to omit them.
• Scale it up and save it: The recipe makes 2 1/2 to 3 cups of sauce, which is more than enough for 12 to 16 ounces of spaghetti, linguine, or bucatini. If you have a surplus of tomatoes, scale the recipe up and freeze the sauce in pint containers. Your future self with thank you!

Tomato Cooking Tips and Hints

8 Ways to Use Roasted Tomato Sauce

The sauce is an excellent vegan sauce for pasta, or you can use it as a base sauce, adding browned ground beef, sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, or any veggies you like. Here are some more ideas for this sauce:

• Serve it over cauliflower gnocchi.
• Toss it with pasta and top it with cheese, such as Parmesan.
• Use it in lasagna.
• Try it in chicken Parmesan.
• Serve it with mozzarella sticks.
• Use it in eggplant Parm.
• Use it as a dipping sauce for grilled cheese.
• Spoon it over grilled chicken or fish.