Quick Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
Quick and simple, homemade roasted cherry tomato sauce – packed with flavor from fresh cherry tomatoes that caramelize and become wonderfully jammy after a quick stint in the oven. This even more delicious take on traditional tomato sauce is made with simple ingredients like garlic, olive oil, basil, and thyme, and you’ll want to make batches all Summer long!
We inherited several tomato plants upon moving into our new house. The sprawling, sagging beauties, top-heavy under the weight of their fruit, have happily delivered a generous yield over the last few weeks, and I’ve been harvesting the delicious house-warming presents with abandon.
The collection of mystery varieties includes about half cherry tomatoes, and I’ve taken to calling the entire lot of them simply Parker tomatoes (after the previous owners). As the plants are still dotted with dozens of yellow flowers – i.e. future tomato babies – and given that it’s already September (!), I harvested the remaining ripe cherries to make a roasted tomato sauce, thus preserving some homegrown tomato goodness for the coming months.
Why you’ll love this roasted cherry tomato sauce
Despite the natural sweetness of perfectly ripe summer tomatoes, a quick roasting still enhances and intensifies their flavor, and – along with some onion, garlic and fresh herbs – transforms the raw tomatoes into a fantastically rich and flavorful sauce. It’s the sort of sauce you’ll be happy to have on hand to brighten up a chilly day in the next couple of months, and totally worth the (minimal) hands-on effort now.
A couple of quick notes: I threw in some yellow and orange cherry tomatoes from the farmers market in addition to our red garden cherries – thus the lighter, orange-y color – but you can use any kind of cherry/grape/small tomato you’ve got. The sweeter the better.
Also, I prepared this roasted cherry tomato sauce to be stored in the fridge or freezer, but if you’re feeling ambitious, and want to tackle shelf-stable canning, Annalise has a great tutorial (and marinara sauce recipe), here. Happy cooking!!
Looking for more easy summer favorites? Try these next:
- Easy slow roasted cherry tomatoes
- Summer pasta with burst cherry tomatoes
- Summer squash grain salad with feta
- Easy pork chops with peaches
- A simple peach galette
If you make this roasted cherry tomato sauce be sure to tag me on Instagram with the hashtag #forkknifeswoon and leave a comment and rating below letting me know how you liked it! ★★★★★ Star ratings are especially helpful because they help others find my recipes too. xo, Laura
PrintQuick Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
- Yield: About 4 pints/2 quarts 1x
- Category: Sauce, Dinner
- Method: Roasted, Blended
- Cuisine: Italian
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Quick and simple, homemade roasted cherry tomato sauce – packed with flavor from fresh cherry tomatoes that caramelize and become wonderfully jammy after a quick stint in the oven. This even more delicious take on traditional tomato sauce is made with simple ingredients like garlic, olive oil, basil, and thyme, and you’ll want to make batches all Summer long!
Ingredients
- 2–3 lbs cherry tomatoes, stems removed
- 1/4 cup good-quality olive oil, plus more for roasting
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 Tbsp fresh garlic, minced
- small handful of fresh basil leaves
- 3–4 sprigs, fresh thyme, stems removed
- kosher salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400℉.
- Toss the tomatoes with just enough olive oil to lightly coat, then spread out in an even layer onto a rimmed sheet pan or large baking dish. Roast for 25-30 minutes, until the tomatoes have burst and are just beginning to shrivel. Remove from the oven, tent loosely with aluminum foil, and set aside.
- Meanwhile, add the 1/4 cup of olive oil to a heavy-bottomed sauce pot. Heat over medium-heat until the oil begins to shimmer. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until they begin to sweat and soften, about 4-5 minutes.
- Add the garlic, stir to combine, and continue cooking for another few minutes until the garlic is golden.
- Add the roasted tomatoes (including all of the cooking liquid in the pan), and the herbs, and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Turn the heat down to low, partially cover the pot with the lid (leaving about a 1-inch gap), and let simmer for at least 25 minutes – and up to an hour – stirring infrequently as the sauce cooks.
- Remove the pot from the heat, and let cool for 10-15 minutes. (Carefully!) Transfer the sauce to a blender (or use an immersion blender), and blend until the sauce reaches your desired consistency.
- Pour the sauce into pint-size canning jars or other air-tight containers.
- Will keep for up to a week in the refrigerator, or 3 months in the freezer. Enjoy!!
Keywords: roasted tomatoes, cherry tomato sauce, roasted cherry tomatoes, summer sauce, freezer tomato sauce, easy tomato sauce, herb tomato,
We grow cherry tomatoes and I made this recipe last night and it was simple and soooooooooo delicious. It was my first time making my own sauce and I’m amazed at how good it tasted. Thank you for this recipe as it’s going to be one of my favorite ones.
★★★★★
I’m honored you used my recipe for your first homemade sauce 🙂 So glad it was a success!
This is delicious! I added some extra garlic because we like garlic and I was using refrigerated minced garlic rather than fresh. I also added some chopped fresh rosemary and oregano. One step I changed: I pureed the tomatoes right after roasting them and added them to the sautéed onion, garlic and herbs then let it simmer for an hour. I’m so glad I found this recipe and will definitely be saving it!
★★★★★
Thanks so much, Amy!! Love how you made it your own – sounds delish! 🙂
My husband’s work just gave us 7.5 pounds of grape tomatoes. I will be using this recipe!
Ooooh, that’s a lot of tomatoes to turn into delicious sauce! 🙂
I had a bowlful of homegrown cherry tomatoes and also some that had split due to our recent Florida heat and downpours. I also had the meat of a few San Marzano that grown properly that I had balanced and froze, (will not waste my time on them next year). I wanted to roast or sauté or whatever would give us something useful and tasty. This recipe is absolutely delicious! Wow!
PS I didn’t measure anything, just used sweet onion fresh, garlic and dried herbs.. very little good quality olive oil and a dash of sugar. I was so tempted to eat it with a spoon! Thank you!
★★★★★
So happy to hear that, Dee!! Is there anything better than homegrown tomatoes?? 🙂
I added two capsicums in the roasting pan and it was so delicious! Thanks for recipe!!!
Hi i love this recipe and will try it tomorrow, do the skins blend up well?
This is a great recipe almost the same one I created! I’m a little lazy so I roast the tomatoes, onion, herbs and a garlic bulb with the top cut off. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and ground black pepper. Roast at 300 for an hour. Put in a blender once cooled a bit in small batches. Throw the tomato mixture in a sauce pot with a large can of tomato paste and two can fills of chicken or beef stock and simmer for two hours. I do can mine with ball jars and a pressure canner.
Love this recipe except mine had a rough texture due to the amount of seeds in the cherry tomatoes. I ran it through an immersion blender and then my food processor and still couldn’t get the consistency that you have in your photos. Any advice?
thanks!
★★★★★
Can this be canned? It’s amazing!!! Love the flavor and the smell!!!
Hi Angie! I’ve canned this sauce for the fridge and freezer (love having this one on hand), but haven’t tried shelf-stable canning yet. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t though! Let me know how it turns out 🙂
I’ve made this many times, especially last Summer, I had a dozen cherry tomato plants! I find I need to add some crushed tomatoes or paste and water once they are initially put into the pot or there doesn’t seem to be enough liquid for them to simmer. A great basic recipe! Add meatballs, or sausage and beef, along with some veggies from the garden and it’s out of this world!
★★★★★
Thanks, Megan!! 🙂
Probably a silly question but what do you use the sauce on?
Thank you!!!!
Pasta!! Any type you like 😊
Wonderful thank you!! I will be making some today.
Second year for me making this sauce. I roasted the onions, cut up, with the tomatoes. Hubby loves the aroma of the roasting step! One of our faves with the bounty of tomatoes.
★★★★★
Oh, I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you, Gail!
Looks to me like yellow gold star hybrids, one of my favorite grow them every year along with black cherry tomatoes (had to special order/request the black cherry ones from the bonnie guy as I moved to a new state this year.
Going to give your recipe a try this evening. Just pulled 2 grocery bags of those exact (like I said seems to be what I grow) tomatoes. Wish me luck!
Thanks, TJ! Hope you enjoy 🙂
Awesome sauce, kids love it, i have been making it the last few weeks, I had so many Cherry tomato’s I was not sure what to do with them, so far I have collected 15 lbs and have made each and everyone of them into this recipe. Best part about it is….. its so easy !!! Thanks Laura for a wonderful recipe
Cheers,
Alex
★★★★★
That makes me so happy to hear! 15 lbs is a ton! This is one of my very favorite sauces to make – I’ve been making it a ton lately too with our homegrown cherry tomatoes. Happy cooking, thanks Alex!!
Am I to understand the skins stay on and are blended in the blender
Yep! Skins and all (no stems though!)… Enjoy!
I miss my cherry tomato plants at our old house… can’t wait to plant them next year. Those puppies just keep producing over and over again, love them! What a beautiful sauce Laura!
Your photos are amazing! Just found your blog but will definitely come back. 🙂
Thank you so much, Thea!! So glad to have you here!
Yum! I love that picture of all those roasted juicy tomatoes!
Thanks, Jenna!
Gorgeous Laura! I need to do this with all my cherry tomatoes that keep coming and coming and coming….
Do it! 🙂
Oh wow!! This looks so lovely! Such a yummy and easy way to use cherry tomatoes.
Thanks, Katrina!!