Let’s dive right into this Fresh Tomato Sauce recipe, shall we? Seriously, we love this recipe so very much. There’s nothing quite like making a batch of tomato sauce using FRESH tomatoes! The results are light, sweet, tangy, slightly acidic, and incredibly flavorful!
I love to hang onto a few roasted tomatoes, before blending the rest into the sauce, to top each serving with a little burst of goodness. We simply toss the sauce with some pasta (our favorite is bucatini) and then top it off with the roasted tomatoes, fresh basil, a lil freshly grated Parmesan and that’s it! A true summer in a bowl sort of meal!
How to Make Fresh Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Process
- Preheat oven to 375˚F. In a ceramic or glass baking dish combine tomatoes, garlic, shallot, and thyme. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss together.
- Place tomato mixture into the oven and roast for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and toss together. Place tomatoes back into the oven for another 15 minutes or until tomato skins have begun to shrivel and the tomatoes themselves have slightly burst.
- Remove tomatoes from oven and discard thyme sprigs. Pour roasted tomato mixture into a blender, reserving about 1 1/2 cups roasted cherry tomatoes for garnish.
- Blend tomato mixture until “chunky-smooth”.
- Pour mixture into a skillet. Place over medium heat and simmer. Stir in tomato paste and basil and season with salt and pepper.
- Stir and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes, until slightly thickened.
- Remove from heat and stir in butter.
- Add pasta and toss together until well coated.
- Top with reserved roasted cherry tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, and grated Parmesan.Serve.
Is Tomato Paste Necessary?
Yes! I know it seems strange to add tomato paste to a fresh tomato sauce, but the tomato paste is actually what gives the sauce body. Without it the tomato sauce would resemble something closer to a watery, thin sauce. Not only does it help to give the sauce body, but because it’s so concentrated, it also gives the sauce a nice depth of tomato flavor.
Tips and Tricks for Success
- As mentioned above, add tomato paste! It will really help add body and depth of flavor to your sauce. Otherwise you may end up with more of a ‘tomato water’ than sauce.
- Although you don’t have to reserve some of the roasted cherry tomatoes for garnish, I think it makes a huge difference, especially when serving with pasta. The bursts of concentrated fresh tomato is the best!
- Although we don’t do this, if you want a smoother consistency with your sauce (and you want to omit the seeds), instead of blending it up, you can run the tomatoes through a food mill.
Canning Fresh Pasta Sauce
Fresh pasta sauce can have a pretty long shelf life, especially when properly canned. When properly canned, you can also keep your pasta sauce in the pantry for 12 to 18 month at a time! We love using this step by step guide for basic canning!
Once you open/unseal the jar of sauce, any unused sauce should be refrigerated in an airtight container and used within 4 to 5 days.
What to Serve with our Fresh Tomato Sauce (Pasta)
We obviously love this tomato sauce tossed with some pasta, but we also love using it as a dipping sauce for a variety of things like:
- garlic bread
- fried ravioli
- mozzarella sticks
- polenta fries
- pizza stuffed breadsticks
- baked asparagus fries
- fried squash blossoms
- fritto misto
More Delicious Fresh Tomato Recipes You Will Love
Fresh Tomato Sauce
INGREDIENTS
fresh tomato sauce
- 2 3/4 pounds cherry tomatoes
- 4 garlic cloves gently smashed
- 1 shallot roughly chopped
- 5 thyme sprigs
- 3 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons minced basil leaves plus more for garnish
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- salt and pepper to taste
serving suggestion
- 8 ounces cooked bucatini (or pasta of choice)
- fresh grated parmesan garnish
INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 375˚F. In a ceramic or glass baking dish combine tomatoes, garlic, shallot, and thyme. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper. Toss together.
- Place tomato mixture into the oven and roast for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and toss together.
- Place tomatoes back into the oven for another 15 minutes or until tomato skins have begun to shrivel and the tomatoes themselves have slightly burst.
- Remove tomatoes from oven and discard thyme sprigs.
- Pour roasted tomato mixture into a blender, reserving about 1 1/2 cups roasted cherry tomatoes for garnish.
- Blend tomato mixture until “chunky-smooth”. Pour mixture into a skillet.
- Place over medium heat and simmer.
- Stir in tomato paste and basil and season with salt and pepper. Stir and simmer for 4to 5 minutes, until slightly thickened.
- Remove from heat and stir in butter. Add pasta and toss together until well coated.
- Top with reserved roasted cherry tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, and grated Parmesan.Serve.
NOTES
- Add tomato paste! It will really help add body and depth of flavor to your sauce. Otherwise you may end up with more of a ‘tomato water’ than sauce.
- Although you don’t have to reserve some of the roasted cherry tomatoes for garnish, I think it makes a huge difference, especially when serving with pasta. The bursts of concentrated fresh tomato is the best!
- Although we don’t do this, if you want a smoother consistency with your sauce (and you want to omit the seeds), instead of blending it up, you can run the tomatoes through a food mill.
Did you make this recipe? We want to see!
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I saw this recipe this morning and it looked tasty. I had most of the ingredients except for the fresh basil, thyme, and shallots. I subbed with red onion, dried basil, and dried thyme. I used half the amount of the dried herbs that the recipe called for. This dish turned out great! It will be in my regular rotation. Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
Delicious! and so easy to make!