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,
Bravo!!!
Your recipe solved the “what to do with so many cherry tomatoes” dilemma. I scored 2 pint jars of the most delicious sauce I have ever created. I used ground thyme as a substitute for the fresh thyme. The blender made it all come together quickly and easily. This recipe is a keeper. I look forward to trying many more of your recipes.
★★★★★
Ah, love it! Thanks so much, Lori!!
This was easy to follow and tastes delicious! I had home grown cherry tomatoes and the herbs , which made extra special. I had just under 2 lbs and ending up with 1 .5 pints!
★★★★★
Thanks, Josie!! 🙂
Made as directed with the abundance from our cherry tomato plants and have now recommended this recipe to my family!! Simple Easy and Delish!!!
★★★★★
Thanks so much, Connie!! 🙂
I cook a lot, I read a lot of recipes online. I never comment. This recipe was so outstanding that I have to. I had an abundance of cherry/grape tomatoes due to planting the wrong kind of seed (oops 😂). I usually make sauce with romas but don’t have many. I googled canning cherry tomatoes and am so glad I found this recipe. I don’t even like tomato sauce that much and I could eat this with a spoon. Thank you!!!
★★★★★
Wow, thank you so much for your kind review, Lillian!! So happy you loved this sauce as much as we do! 🙂
Pretty much followed the recipe but added extra garlic and herbs. I did strain as there were a lot of seeds. It is delicious. Probably would make a great tomato soup.
★★★★★
Nothing wrong with extra garlic 😉 Thanks, Deborah!!
Hi Deborah… at what point did you strain?
Wow, this is super flavorful. I love using an immersion blender and not having to peel/seed the tomatoes. WIll this work for larger varieties as well? Oven roasting does give a wonderful carmelization and greater sweetness to the sauce. Thanks for sharing!
★★★★★
Thanks so much, Sandy!! I haven’t tried this exact recipe with much larger varieties. I think a few other readers have, with success. Because larger tomatoes may be juicier/have more water content, roasting might take a little bit longer, or you’ll just end up with a thinner sauce. Likely still delicious 🙂
Are you able to can/preserve this for future use, like other pasta sauces? I have so many cherry tomatoes (the plants were given to me) and other than adding them to salsa and spaghetti sauce, have no other use for them. Would love to try this and use in the future as well.
Yes, absolutely! I always make a few extra jars-worth to save in the freezer. You can do this without making any changes to the recipe. Several readers have (shelf-stable) canned this too, but you’ll probably want to add some citric acid to be safe. Enjoy!!
Yay!! I have ever so many tomatoes in the garden this year and can’t wait to can them using this recipe!!
Thanks, Karla! Enjoy! 🙂
This a great recipe to build on or as is. I’ve made it twice. First time I followed the recipe as written. The second time I chose to roast several small cloves garlic in their skin along with the tomatoes. That’s the only change. Oh, and I used Sungold cherry tomatoes. Pretty golden yellow. Easy and very yummy!
★★★★★
Thanks so much, Jude! I loooove Sungolds too 🙂
This has become our family favorite! We have planted extra tomatoes this year just so we can make more of this sauce. We can it and use it all year for pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, etc. I’ve added different types of tomatoes to the batch depending on what we’re harvesting. I just chop up larger tomatoes into roughly cherry tomato size and throw it all in the pan together. It gives a little variety to the flavor of the different batches as well. I love using the immersion blender so that I don’t have to transfer the hot liquid. Thank you for the perfect, simple, go-to recipe.
★★★★★
Thank you, Lyric!! So happy you love this one as much as we do!
Could I can this? I made this last year with my cherry tomatoes from my garden and my kids went nuts for it!
Very easy recipe to follow. I water bath can and altered this just a little to make it shelf stable and a little smoother. Before adding the tomatoes to the onion pot, I de-skinned about half of them (eliminates a bit of bitterness if there is any). I added 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to each pint jar and boiled in a water bath for 40 minutes. Very delicious.
★★★★★
Thanks, Melissa!!
Second time I made this recipe. Very good! So happy I now have a great recipe to use up cherry tomatoes from my garden when needed.
★★★★★
Hello, is the 400 degrees standard oven or fan forced. Most recipes here in Australia assume fan-forced but not sure if that applies to you! Thanks.
Hi! I use a conventional (American) oven. I’m not familiar with fan-forced, but that may work too.
Thanks for the great recipe! I roasted the garlic along with the tomatoes (3 cloves) and added a bit of red wine to deglaze the pan after cooking the onions and a dash of balsalmic vinegar at the end to add some extra sweetness. Fabulous for pizzas!
★★★★★
My cherry tomatoes were transformed into a delicious purée that I will use in a variety of dishes. I will definitely use this recipes again, thank you!
★★★★★
Delicious, mine had a little chili kick, as I had just made a chili jam in the same as I used for tomato sauce.
★★★★★
Yum!! 🙂
Can you leave the leaves on the tomatoes when roasting?
I don’t know if I over cooked mine but it was a bit bitter. It was nice to taste until it was blended 🙁
It’s edible but not as delicious as everyone else’s.
★★★
Maybe you should put some sugar on the tomatoes next time 🙂
Tomato seeds can add bitterness.
★★★★
I love the internet I can google something like “what to do with excess cherry tomatoes” and the first thing that pops up is an amazingly perfect story and recipe. I’m allergic to onion but I had an enormous bounty of tomatoes and fresh herbs, now I’ve got a freezer full of tomato sauces to cover my needs for winter. Thank you so much
★★★★★
This was so delicious and not too hard to make!
Made this from our home-grown tomatoes and added some town basil leaves. OMG. It was scrumptious! Thank you. 🙂
Love that you still have homegrown tomatoes!! 🙂