This delicious Roasted Tomato Sauce is easy to make from scratch! You’ll love this versatile homemade sauce recipe with mozzarella sticks, over pasta, in casseroles, and more.
Homemade Tomato Sauce
This delicious homemade marinara sauce is unbelievably simple to make and is a breeze to add to your meal prep day! Roasting fresh tomatoes, onion, and garlic leads to a beautiful, well-developed flavor that will make it taste like you simmered your sauce all day long!
Why you’ll love it:
- Simple – We use 9 ingredients in this recipe, all of which are usually easy to find at your average grocery store. There are only two steps involved–Roasting and blending. It’s a straight-forward, simple sauce that won’t take a lot of effort, money, or thought.
- Less cleanup – Most marinara sauces call for simmering on the stove for long periods of time. This usually leads to splatter all over for me. This recipe develops its flavors in the oven, then the blender does the rest of the work, so your countertops and stove will stay nice and clean!
- Freezer friendly – You can freeze this sauce to keep it on hand for months! Freeze small portions in an ice cube tray to easily add to soups or thaw for dipping. Freeze larger portions to use for pizza, spaghetti, and other dinners!
Roasted Tomato Sauce Ingredients
Here’s a quick overview of what you’ll need for this recipe. Scroll down to the bottom of the page for exact measurements!
- Fresh tomatoes – I used San marzano tomatoes from the garden. These have a fantastic flavor for sauce, and they are incredibly juicy. If you can’t find any san marzanos, try Romas, Viva Italia, or another paste tomato variety. You want tomatoes that are meaty, not too seedy.
- White onion and Garlic – The sharp flavor of white onion makes it perfect with acidic tomatoes! Feel free to swap for yellow onions for a milder onion flavor and a slightly sweeter sauce. Fresh, homegrown garlic always has the best flavor, but feel free to use the minced jar if it’s more convenient.
- Olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, Salt, and Italian seasoning – Your veggies roast in this, so the better quality ingredients you use, the better flavor your sauce will develop.
- Dry red wine and Beef broth – These are both added to the roasted veggies in the blender. I do not cook out the alcohol because the flavor works well with the tomatoes, and we don’t have any reason to avoid it. Feel free to simmer your marinara afterwards to cook this off if you prefer.
- OPTIONAL: Heavy cream. This helps cut the acidity and creates a creamier sauce. For a traditional tomato marinara sauce, leave it out. If you like something creamier, try a little!
For this recipe, you’ll also need a sheet pan, oven, and blender.
How to make the BEST tomato sauce
This easy marinara sauce takes hardly any work at all! Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to making this homemade sauce.
Roast tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the tomatoes (halved or quartered if they’re large) and the roughly chopped onion and garlic into a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then sprinkle with salt, and Italian seasoning. Toss to coat.
Roast for 30 minutes, then remove from oven and stir. Return to the oven and roast an additional 20-30 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated and tomato skins are charred. Once your pan looks similar to the photos above, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.
Blend
Transfer the tomatoes, onion, and garlic to the blender. Make sure to use a spatula to scrape off any bits–These have tons of flavor, and we don’t want to lose it to the pan! Add beef broth and dry red wine to the blender and process until smooth. Taste test and add additional wine or broth to achieve the consistency you desire.
NOTE: Feel free to simmer this mixture on the stove to cook out the alcohol in the wine if you prefer. We don’t mind it added in, we enjoy the flavor, and we love how easy it makes this recipe.
How to serve roasted tomato sauce
This marinara sauce works wonderfully over pasta like spaghetti, gnocchi, or even zoodles for a low-carb option! Add a sprinkle of fresh chopped herbs and shredded parmesan cheese to further enhance the lovely flavors in the sauce. It’s also great as a dip–Pour some in a small bowl, garnish with parmesan and herbs, then dip mozzarella sticks, garlic bread, or these tasty Zucchini Breadsticks.
More ways to use marinara sauce:
- Cook Italian Meatballs in it
- Use it for Homemade Pizza
- Make a Zucchini Casserole
- Bake some Chicken Parmesan
- Serve as a side with pizza bites, spinach cheese bites, or keto ravioli
Store
This homemade tomato sauce recipe will last 3-4 days in an airtight container in the fridge. It’s convenient to go ahead and fill some small lunch containers for quick meal packing!
Can you freeze homemade tomato sauce?
Yes, this is a great recipe to freeze for later! To freeze, first allow the sauce to cool completely. Store in a freezer-safe, airtight container and try to press out as much air as possible. I recommend using disposable freezer bags as the red color of the sauce has a tendency to stain reusable containers. Plus, if it’s in a bag, you can freeze it lying flat. This is perfect for easy storage (just set it upright against the wall of your freezer, and you’ve still got tons of room!) and for quick thawing (the thinner, larger surface area means it’ll be ready to use in no time).
Reheat
To reheat, simply microwave at 50% power in 45-second increments (make sure to cover with a paper towel to avoid a mess). You could also reheat it on medium low in a skillet or pot. If frozen, you’ll keep the best quality by allowing it to slowly thaw in the fridge. However, it can also be thawed in the microwave or on the stove.
If you love this recipe, you’ll love these homemade sauces!
- Homemade Pesto – You’ll always want to keep your basil plant healthy for this delicious, herby pesto sauce! Awesome with eggs, pasta, potatoes, even mixed into cream sauce.
- Shrimp Alfredo – This easy keto alfredo sauce is so quick! You’ll love it with chicken, seafood, veggies, or even as a dip for breadsticks.
- Pollo con Queso – A good, creamy queso is the perfect sauce for chicken, steak, seafood, and more! It also makes an amazing dip for brussels sprouts (and it can be smoked, too).
- Chimichurri – Cilantro and parsley pack tons of flavor into this simple sauce! We love it on steaks and chicken, but it’s also a tasty dip.
- Mushroom Cream Sauce – This goes perfectly with chicken, pork, or pasta! Spoon it over mashed potatoes or cauliflower for an extra-special steakhouse side dish.
Roasted Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 3 pounds fresh san marzano tomatoes
- 1 white onion peeled and quartered
- 2 heads garlic peeled
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1/2 cup dry red wine
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- **Optional: to cut the acidity and create a creamier sauce add 1/4 cup heavy cream. This is not essential and is a strictly optional step.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- Add the fresh San Marzano tomatoes, onion, garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and Italian seasoning. Roast for 30 minutes, remove from the oven and stir. Roast an additional 20-30 minutes until it resembles the photos in the pictures and most of the liquid has evaporated.
- Remove from the oven and allow the mixture to cool 10 minutes.
- Transfer the ingredients to a blender add the red wine and beef broth. Blend until smooth.
- Taste test the mixture and if needed add additional wine or broth to achieve the consistency you desire.