Roasted Tomato Sauce (Meal Prep!)

This Roasted Tomato Sauce is an easy, healthy sauce for pasta and a great way to use ripe tomatoes overgrowing in your garden. Plus, you can store and freeze this tomato sauce for months to meal prep many healthy family dinners.

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Store-bought pasta sauce is one of these pantry staples that we often buy without thinking about how much added oil, added sugar, and additives they contain. But I have great news for you. You can make your own healthy pasta sauce at home in a few minutes using wholesome ingredients.

You might have tried my pumpkin pasta sauce, cauliflower alfredo sauce, or mushroom sauce. But today, it’s an all-new flavor of sauce, a classic roasted tomato sauce made with ripe tomatoes.

Ingredients and Substitutions

• Ripe Fresh Tomatoes – Any tomato works, but the riper they are, the sweeter the sauce will be. If you want to cut on added sugar in tomato sauce, it’s a must. For example, if you are using Roma tomatoes in this recipe, they are less acidic, and often you don’t need sugar with them.
• Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or avocado oil – I usually prefer avocado oil for roasting vegetables like in my roasted cauliflower recipe. High smoke oil won’t smoke. But, when it comes to this Italian-style sauce, olive oil is a must, simply because it brings out so much flavor.
• Garlic cloves – peeled, whole in the oven.
• Onion – Finely diced. Feel free to use white onion or brown onion for a sweeter sauce.
• Rosemary Sprigs – or rosemary leaves.
• Dried Oregano – or fresh.
• Salt and Pepper – Season to taste.
• Vegetable Stock – You can make your own when you bake vegetables.
• Sugar – You can skip the sugar if the tomatoes are ripe enough. Also, sugar-free natural sweeteners like a pinch of erythritol or allulose work very well as a diabetic-friendly option.

Like any tomato sauce, this sauce can be enhanced with cheese or spices like :

• Fresh basil
• Parmesan cheese
• Marjoram
• Rosemary
• Oregano

How To Make Roasted Tomato Sauce

It’s very easy to make a one-pan roasted tomato sauce recipe. While many recipes are made in two steps with roasting tomatoes first and then cooking onions and garlic in a pan, I do all in one pan. You will be amazed by how easy and super tasty it is to roast all your sauce ingredients in a single pan.

1. First, preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet or two small baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Wash the tomatoes and remove their green stem.
3. Cut them into thick half-moon shapes, as seen in my pictures below. The thinner, the faster they roast, so don’t cut them too thin either, or the tomato juice evaporates, and the sauce comes out dry.
4. Place the tomato pieces in a large mixing bowl with the garlic cloves and minced onion.
5. Pour olive oil over the tomatoes, sprinkle salt, pepper, dried oregano, and rosemary sprigs, and toss together. You can also work directly on the baking sheet but I found it a bit more difficult to stir the ingredients together as it moves the parchment paper on the pan. Also, you need more oil when stirring the pan as it spreads everywhere.
6. Spread the tomatoes, garlic and onion on the prepared baking sheet.
7. Bake on the center rack of the oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring halfway. Bake until the tomato skin turns golden brown, looks wilted, and the garlic cloves are soft.
8. Remove the pan from the oven and let it steam out a few minutes to avoid burning yourself.
9. Remove the rosemary sprigs from the pan and discard them. There are two ways to make this roasted tomato sauce recipe. You can make a chunky tomato sauce where you keep the roasted tomatoes as is or a creamier sauce where some of the sauce is blended.

Making it Chunky

This is for those who enjoy pieces of roasted tomatoes and don’t mind the tomato skin.

1. Use a fork to press the garlic cloves on the pan. They should be soft and create a puree, easy to stir in the roasted tomatoes.
2. In a large non-stick skillet or cast iron pan, pour the vegetable stock, sugar if used, and the roasted vegetables from the baking sheet.
3. Bring over medium heat, stir, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes until warm and fragrant. You can use a potato masher or fork to gently break the tomato in the sauce.

Making it Creamy

1. If you like your sauce thicker and creamier, remove 1 1/2 cups of roasted vegetables from the baking sheet and place them in the jug of a high-speed blender with the vegetable stock.
2. Blend on the high-speed setting until creamy and smooth. If you don’t have a blender, use a food processor or place the ingredients in a tall glass jug, and use an immersion blender.
3. Pour the mixture into a non-stick sauce with the remaining roasted vegetables from the baking sheet. Cook for 10 minutes, add the sugar if desired, and cook until warm and fragrant.
4. For an even thicker sauce, blend the entire sauce!

Storage Instructions

This oven-roasted tomato sauce is perfect to meal prep weeks of healthy dinners. You can store the tomato sauce in freezer bags or an airtight container and freeze it for up to 3 months. Thaw the sauce in the fridge the day before using.

Serving

This roasted tomato sauce can be used in many dishes like:

• Zucchini Noodles for a low-carb pasta dinner.
• Cooked Pasta
• Lasagna like in my zucchini lasagna recipe
• Steamed cauliflower to add flavor to any steamed vegetable.
• Pizza as a swap for my keto pizza sauce. Use as a base for my almond flour pizza crust or buffalo chicken pizza.
• Crustless pizza
• Pizza dip
• Zucchini pizza casserole
• Pizza bowl

Allergy Swaps

Below are some ideas to make this recipe differently if you are allergic to some of its ingredients.

• Onion-Free – You can use shallots or skip the onion altogether.
• Sugar-Free – You don’t need sugar in tomato sauce if the tomatoes are ripe. Sugar is used to counter the acidity of tomatoes, but this fades in ripe tomatoes. If you need a touch of sweetness without the carbs, use your favorite low-carb sweetener.
• Garlic-Free – You can skip the garlic for a low-FODMAP sauce.
• Olive Oil-Free – The best oil for roasting is avocado oil or coconut oil, but it adds coconut flavor to the recipe unless you pick refined coconut oil.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are my answered about this homemade roasted tomato sauce recipe.

More Sauce Recipes

If you like healthy sauce recipes, you’ll love these: