This roasted cherry tomato sauce is a great way to use up all of those cherry tomatoes in your garden. Simple to make and delicious, this cherry tomato recipe is one to make every summer. Use some now and freeze more for later!
How to Use Up Cherry Tomatoes From the Garden
If you grow a garden, then chances are you grow tomatoes. That means that you are probably growing cherry tomatoes as well!
I love having cherry tomatoes in my garden because they are easy to grow and very prolific. They also make a great snack while out in the garden, especially the extra sweet sungold variety! My little one loves to eat them straight from the plant.
While eating them fresh all summer is wonderful, by late August or September I often find myself wondering how to use up all the cherry tomatoes that seem to be ripening quicker than I can pick them!
Large tomatoes are often used in canning projects for tomato sauce or salsa, but cherry tomatoes aren’t ideal in these recipes because they are harder to process due to their small size. Removing the skins from 100’s of cherry tomatoes doesn’t sound like a lot of fun to me!
That’s where this roasted cherry tomato sauce comes in. It’s super simple to make and tastes delicious! It’s become one of my favorite end of summer recipes.
If fermenting is your thing, I also have a recipe for fermented cherry tomatoes to try!
Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce Recipe
The main thing that you will need to make this roasted tomato sauce recipe is cherry tomatoes! Any size or variety of cherry tomatoes will work.
This recipe also works great with larger tomatoes, just cut them in halves or quarters first.
One thing to mention is that this recipe is very forgiving, so feel free to adjust the amounts based on what you have. I usually just fill up the sheet pans with however many tomatoes I have from the garden!
Related: Homemade Tomato Soup with Fresh Tomatoes
The other ingredients in the recipe are more variable. I always add onions and a few whole garlic cloves, but a couple of sweet or spicy peppers is a nice addition as well.
Simply spread out the tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers (if you’re using them) on sheet pans. I typically do two sheet pans at a time so that I can use up as many tomatoes as possible!
Then drizzle the tomatoes and other veggies with a generous amount of olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Roast them in the oven at 400°F for 30-40 minutes. The cherry tomatoes will burst and release some delicious juices, and the onions, garlic, and peppers will be soft.
Let them cool for a few minutes, then transfer the entire contents of the sheet pan, juices and all, to a blender or food processor. You may need to do this in two or more batches depending on how many tomatoes you have.
Add some fresh herbs before blending if you wish. I almost always add fresh basil if I have it, but oregano or thyme are also good choices!
I also usually add a splash of balsamic vinegar as well. It just gives it something a little extra.
If you want a creamy tomato sauce you can also add a splash or two of heavy cream. Trust me when I say that it’s amazing!
Then blend everything until the sauce is smooth.
Pour it into jars and that is it! So easy, so delicious.
How to Store Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
This roasted cherry tomato sauce will keep in the fridge for about a week.
I usually plan on making pasta for dinner the night that I make it and that uses some of it up right away!
Whatever I don’t think I’ll use up in a week I will put into containers to freeze. It freezes really well in wide mouth mason jars or plastic containers.
If you are using glass jars for freezing just be sure to use wide mouth jars (Ball jars are best) and leave two inches of headspace for expansion so that the jar doesn’t break. It’s helpful to refrigerate the jars of sauce before freezing, as it lessens the temperature difference, which can also cause jars to break. I also recommend using the plastic storage lids when freezing in glass jars rather than the metal canning lids.
This recipe shouldn’t be canned because it hasn’t been tested for that purpose. Here is a good recipe for canned roasted tomato sauce.
This delicious roasted tomato sauce can be used in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. It’s has an amazing roasted flavor that is truly wonderful! The sweetness of the fresh homegrown cherry tomatoes really shines.
It works well on pasta, roasted veggies, chicken, pizza, or even as a dipping sauce!
I think it will become your new favorite way to use up cherry tomatoes!
More Easy Summer Preserving Recipes
Here are some more quick and easy preserving recipes for summer!
- Refrigerator Dill Pickles
- Refrigerator Pepperoncini Pickles
- Fermented Cucumber Pickles
- Dehydrated Peppers
- Zucchini Chips
Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 cups cherry tomatoes more or less
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 peppers, roughly chopped optional
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- dash salt
- dash pepper
- 1 handful fresh basil, oregano, and/or thyme optional
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F
- Spread out the tomatoes, onions, garlic, and peppers (if you’re using them) on sheet pans.
- Drizzle the tomatoes and other veggies with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
- Roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
- Let the tomatoes cool for a few minutes, then transfer the entire contents of the sheet pan, juices and all, to a blender or food processor. You may need to do this in two or more batches depending on how many tomatoes you have.
- Add the fresh herbs and balsamic vinegar to the blender if desired.
- Blend until the tomato sauce is smooth.
- Pour into jars and store in the refrigerator.
Notes
- If you want a creamy tomato sauce you can also add a splash or two of heavy cream.
- This roasted cherry tomato sauce will keep in the fridge for about a week.
- Whatever I don’t think I’ll use up in a week I will put into containers to freeze.
- This recipe shouldn’t be canned because it hasn’t been tested for that purpose. Here is a good recipe for canned roasted tomato sauce.
This looks great. What type of peppers do you use?
You can use whatever kind you like. I used sweet bell peppers, but any hot pepper would work well if you can stand the heat.
I made this last year. Froze my tomatoes until I had enough. This recipe is wonderfully tasty and easy to make. Thank you!
I’m so glad you liked it!
I love this recipe! I can’t use my oven for another week or two… could I freeze the cherry tomatoes for a bit and then roast them and use this recipe?
Hi Anna. That should be fine.
I have never left a recipe review before, but this was so delicious, it deserves 10 stars! Excellent and super duper easy. I sent this recipe to everyone I know. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Jen! I’m so glad you loved this recipe!