I finally made my first batch of homemade spaghetti sauce!
Every summer I have big plans to make sauce and I never get around to it. Yesterday I had the day off from work to take my daughter to kindergarten orientation.
It was raining and we had zero plans. Out to the garden I went to pick every ripe tomato I could find. I made this sauce with Roma and large grape tomatoes and it was amazing!
Roasting the tomatoes gives the sauce such depth and flavor. It is definitely worth the time and your house will smell divine!
Ingredients
- 18-20 large Roma tomatoes, cut in half
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- Handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
- 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, stems removed
- Salt and pepper to taste
- About 1 1/2 cups of water
- 1 tablespoon of sugar
Directions
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper. This makes for easy clean up. Set aside.
- Pre heat oven to 300 degrees.
- In a large bowl mix olive oil, garlic, onion, sugar and Italian seasoning.
- Place cut tomatoes in the bowl and gently coat the tomatoes with olive oil mixture using a spoon or your hands. Place tomatoes cut side up on baking sheet and top with fresh herbs, salt, and pepper. Roast for approximately 2 hours.
- After 2 hours increase the heat of the oven to 400 degrees. Roast approximately for another 15 to 20 minutes.
- Remove roasted tomatoes from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Place tomatoes in a food processor or blender and puree to desired consistency. Add water to thin out if you like a thinner sauce.
Enjoy!
Wow this looks fantastic!! I have never made tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, strangely, but I am going to have to try this out, it looks incredible!! Those photos are totally making me hungry!!
That was my first time making sauce from fresh tomatoes. Surprisingly easy and so good!!!
Love the clicks, the sauce looks finger-licking delicious.
Looks delicious! Roughly how much sauce do you get per batch?
I roasted 2 large baking sheets of tomatoes and filled about 1 large mason jar.
Can you substitute the sugar for anything?
You could try completely eliminating the sugar. I am not sure what would be a good substitute.
In the past, I have used cinnamon as a substitute for sugar and you might also try a natural sweetener such as Stevia. Be very careful to add just a wee bit at a time as it is very easy to overdo it on both of these ingredients.
I use 2 TPS honey instead. It makes it rich & mellow.
You can put 10 Mejdool dates in very hot, low simmer, water for 3-4 minutes. Reserve the water. Blend them up starting with 2tbsp of reserved water, adding water slowly until you get the desired consistency. I’ve done this for whole 30 sloppy joe’s and you get a nice sweet flavor, but my family had no idea they were eating dates.
Yummy! Do you have any photos of the pre-baked product so we can see the distribution of the herbs, etc?
Sorry no I don’t have any old photos. This recipe is about 2 years old.
can this be canned?
I have not canned this sauce, but I am sure you could!
This looks fabulous. TFS!
One question. What about the peels? Did you just blend the whole tomato? Do you find peel bits in the sauce?
Yes I left the peels on and blended the whole tomatoes. There were not any pieces of the peel in the sauce. Hope this helps.
Did you leave all the seeds in the sauce?
Can this be frozen?
I have not froze it, but I’m sure it would work
Yes you can freeze this! I’ve been making this for years, it is so good! I wait until it cools and place it in either freezer bags(can lay them flat ) or freezer containers. I also make some for when I make chili. I just add a jalapeño sliced in half along with everything else.
Making this today. Great way to use up veggies. I made a small batch with what I had. Will probably only yield a couple of cups. I used a little balsamic to add some acidity and sweetness. Planning on using on eggs and grilled zucchini/asparagus. Cannot wait. House filling with smells already!
Turned out wonderfully. Lots of fresh flavors. I could’ve charred and roasted my tomatoes longer, but great nonetheless. Easy recipe! Will keep this one in my back pocket.
Can you use what ever kind of tomatoes that you have in the garden for this or is there too much juice in them?
I used whatever tomatoes were ripe.
Looks amazing, but I am wondering how much lemon juice or citric acid would be needed to be safe for canning. But I would love to freeze this!!
Did anybody else’s onions burn? I’m finding mine are burning before I even turn the heat up.
Did you roast the onions too. I didn’t see instructions about onions.
The diced onions go into the olive oil mixture that coat the tomatoes.
Hi there,
These look fabulous! Can I check the oven temperature? You say 300 degrees is that celsius or Fahrenheit?