Fresh Tomato Sauce

5 from 3 votes

It's hard to beat the flavors from a Fresh Tomato Sauce! This summer, take full advantage of all the delicious, ripe tomatoes and make our sauce! Everyone will be so impressed by the flavors! Toss it with your favorite pasta or use it for dipping delicious bread, for the best tomato sauce experience!

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Total Time50

Course: dinner, lunch, sauce

Cuisine: Italian

Servings:

Calories: 232kcal

Author: Teri & Jenny

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

US Customary - Metric

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.

Video

Notes

**Nutritional Information does not include pasta or Parmesan garnish**

Tips and Tricks for Success

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.

Nutrition