Roasted Tomato Sauce: Chocked full of roasted vegetables this homemade, gluten-free tomato sauce is bursting with deeply caramelized flavor. It’s great for pasta and incredible as a pizza sauce!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Let’s face it. When it’s not summer, I miss eating tomatoes for most of the year. 

I sort of refuse to buy them if it isn’t July, August, or September and even then, I’m sort of a huge snob about them.  They must come from our garden (or a friend/family member’s garden), the farm stand, farmer’s market, or at the very least, have a sign in the grocery store telling me which local farm they have been shipped from. 

Because really, is there nothing – NOTHING – worse than a gorgeously colored tomato that is mealy inside and tastes like well…nothing.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

On the other hand, there is someone else who lives here and he does like tomatoes on his salads throughout the year. And while I can deal with grape or cherry tomatoes in the off-season months, I’m still not a huge fan. 

But for some strange reason, Kyle has started picking around some of the smaller yellow cherries in favor of the red ones in the container. And then proceeds to not back for the yellows, opting to open up a new container. This isn’t frustrating or anything.

So I’ve decided to roast these poor leftover tomatoes instead of eating them fresh.

Roasted Tomato Sauce

I knew when I roasted tomatoes for the first time this summer that this would be an excellent solution to “blah” winter tomatoes.  And instead of using the passed-over tomatoes straight-up for something like this quinoa salad, I threw in a few extra veggies and made roasted tomato sauce. 

We used most of this sauce for pizza sauce and even on just a simple pepperoni pizza, this sauce really ramped up pizza night. Imagine what this sauce would do to this 3 cheese rosemary and pepperoni pizza?

Or this grilled farmer’s market pizza? Talk about the ultimate summer meal!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

This roasted tomato sauce is earthy and rustic and I’m positive that it will turn even a bowl of plain ol’ spaghetti into a special meal in under an hour. You can now forget about waiting hours for sauce to cook on the stove. There’s definitely a time and a place for a long-cooking sauce. A weeknight is not it.

And just go ahead and lose the jarred store-bought sauce. This gluten-free, vegan sauce is way easier, tastier, and so much healthier than jarred sauce!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Roasted Tomato Sauce

Yield: 1 ¾ to 2 cups sauce
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Roasted tomato sauce is chocked full of roasted vegetables: tomatoes, carrots, peppers, onions, and garlic. It's bursting with deeply caramelized vegetable flavor and it's great over pasta and incredible as a pizza sauce!

Ingredients

  • 1 ½ lbs grape or cherry tomatoes
  • 1 small onion, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick (do not separate the slices)
  • 2 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 4 x ½-inch long sticks
  • 1 red pepper, quartered lengthwise with seeds removed
  • 2 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • ¾ to 1 cup vegetable broth (low sodium if you can find it)

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425° F. Line two baking sheets with aluminum foil. Scatter the tomatoes, onion slices, carrots, red pepper, and garlic out over the two baking sheets. Sprinkle the thyme over the vegetables. Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables and using your hands, mix up the vegetables to evenly coat them with the oil then spread them out in a single layer on each sheet pan. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the vegetables.
  2. Roast the vegetables for 40 to 45 minutes, turning all of them with a spatula halfway through. Transfer the red peppers to a medium bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap; set aside for 10 minutes. Once the peppers have cooled enough to handle, strip off the skins with a paper towel and discard.
  3. Transfer all of the vegetables to the bowl of a food processor set with the metal blade. Pour in ¾ cup vegetable broth and add ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Turn the processor on and purée the ingredients until they are just about smooth, about 1 minute. If the sauce is too thick for your liking, add in up to an extra ¼ cup vegetable broth and purée again until the liquid incorporates. Season with extra salt and pepper as needed. The sauce will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks; freeze for up to 3 months.

Notes

This recipe will yield about 1 ¾ to 2 cups of sauce and it can be easily doubled or tripled to suit your needs.

adapted from Everyday Food, September 2005

Recommended Products

As a member of the Amazon Associate affiliate program, I earn a small percentage from your qualifying Amazon purchases when you click the Amazon links on this page. I'm not informed of who purchases what, just of what products are purchased.

How much do you love this recipe?

Follow Smells Like Home on Pinterest and click that little Pin button at the top of this recipe card to save this recipe and share with your Pinterest followers!

You Might Also Like:

Leave a Comment

  • February 27, 2013 at 8:54 AM

    This sauce looks soooo wonderful and delicious!

  • February 27, 2013 at 9:18 AM

    This sounds so good! Love the idea of using as a pizza sauce!

  • February 27, 2013 at 11:14 AM

    i’m with you on the tomato thing! i usually just settle for canned during the winter but i love the idea of roasting 🙂

  • February 27, 2013 at 12:02 PM

    Oh, I like the sound of this sauce! Roasting always brings out the best in a vegetable. Putting it on must-try list. If you want an easy but delicious tomato sauce–not to mention a good laugh, check out the tomato sauce on my site. 🙂

  • February 27, 2013 at 12:42 PM

    Wow this looks amazing! I don’t often think about roasting tomatoes for sauce. Sounds like an excellent plan.

  • February 28, 2013 at 11:32 AM

    I am a total tomato snob. I have a countdown going until the first heirlooms are available. Until then, this sauce should hold me!

  • March 3, 2013 at 2:12 PM

    I have to try this recipe, I like to bake pizza often so this will be very useful, I’m sure that this taste so much better than the others that can be bought in the the store

  • […] Natasha Poly for Terry Richardson, We Heart It, Immaculate Bites, Smells Like Home, Big Design Loves, babble Sources: Shape.com, Nutritional Wellness, Huffington Post, […]

  • […] Natasha Poly for Terry Richardson, We Heart It, Immaculate Bites, Smells Like Home, Big Design Loves, babble Sources: Shape.com, Nutritional Wellness, Huffington […]