Easy Roasted Tomatoes for Sauce and Freezing (2024)

If you’ve ever thought about making sauce with fresh tomatoes, but weren’t quite sure how to do it, I’ve got you covered with my Easy Roasted Tomatoes for Sauce and Freezing. Seriously, anyone can do this! There’s no time intensive peeling or coring involved. Simply clean, cut, roast, process, and freeze or use immediately. Roasting tomatoes for sauce and freezing couldn’t be any easier! .

This updated post was originally published September 17, 2013.

Why roast tomatoes?

Besides the time savings and ease of preparation, there are lots of reasons to try roasting tomatoes.

• First one, obviously, you can season it however you like. Prefer to add garlic? Go ahead and add some in! Same for basil or thyme or any other herbs and spices you can think of. This recipe simply uses olive oil and a little kosher salt.

• Second is flavor. Roasting brings out the full, wonderful flavor of tomatoes. Under heat, the natural sweetness of the tomato is heightened and concentrated, and there’s a lot more depth to the flavor too. Just so good!

• Third, not only can you modify the herbs and spices for your own tastes, you can determine how much salt, or sodium, is added to your tomatoes and sauce. That’s pretty useful if you’re following a low sodium diet or just trying to reduce the sodium you eat in general.

• Fourth, there’s less food waste. If you garden or are part of CSA, you’re often getting more tomatoes than you can use or eat at one time. Roasting them and turning them into a sauce that can be frozen for later use is a wonderful way to use them and not have to throw them out.

Are roasted tomatoes healthy?

Tomatoes are packed with nutrients! They’rehigh in Vitamin C and beta-carotene, and low in calories, fat, and sodium. Also, when you cook them, you end up with a higher concentration of lycopene than you do with fresh tomatoes. Lycopene is an antioxidant that gives tomotoes some of their color, and there’s research showing they may help with cancer risk and heart health. Roasted tomatoes are definitely a wise choice that fit into an overall healthy diet.

FAQ’s and cooking tips for Easy Roasted Tomatoes:

Do I need to peel tomatoes before roasting?

No need to peel the tomatoes before you roast them! This dramatically cuts down the time needed to make your own homemade sauce. No more cooking them over a hot stove, andthen forcing them through a sieve to remove all the skins and seeds. That takes a long time, at least for me it did; and I always felt guilty throwing away all those skins too. Sure, I got the pulp, but I eat the skin on a raw tomato – why not cooked? Good ahead and roast them with the peel.

Do I need to core tomatoes before roasting?

While you can remove the core before roasting, if you like, you don’t have to. I found that roasting softens the core of most tomatoes and it’s easily blended into the sauce when you process it. However, if your tomatoes have a thick or large core, it’s fine to cut it out when cutting the tomatoes in half – especially if you like a super smooth sauce.

What types of dishes can I use easy roasted tomato sauce in?

There’s a plethora of recipes available that call for tomato sauce. And you can use this Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce in any of them. Some of my favorite ways to use it are in spaghetti sauce, chili, enchilada sauce, and tomato soup. You might enjoy my Roasted Tomato Soup recipe on a chilly fall or winter night.

What kind of tomatoes can I use for roasting?

I find Roma or paste tomatoes work best when roasting, especially if you plan to make sauce with them. They have thicker walls and less juice, which makes for a nicer sauce. If you happen to have a lot of cherry tomatoes, take a look at my Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce. It’s one of our most popular recipes here on Healthy Ideas Place.

How to roast tomatoes for sauce

• Gather enough Romaor paste tomatoes to cover at least two jelly roll pans after the tomatoes are halved. I used about 21 medium-sized Roma tomatoes on each pan.
• Line pans with foil and coat with olive oil. Place halved tomatoes on the pans and season with more olive oil and salt (if desired). Place pans in oven and roast until soft and somewhat shrunk. You may see some carmelization, or browning, on the skins as well.
• Remove the pans from the oven and cool slightly. Then process in a food processor or blender and freeze.

If you’ve never experienced tomato sauce made from freshly picked tomatoes, you’re missing something good. Season it any way you like with garlic, basil, thyme, or maybe a little sea salt, or perhaps with cumin, cilantro, and oregano. However you decide to season it, there’s an unmistakable taste of fresh, clean, real tomato flavor. And freezing your own sauce locks that in.

Roasting makes it easy to prepare and freeze your own fresh-from-the-garden tomato sauce – or fresh-from-the-farmer’s-market if that is the case. I love everything about this method. There’s very little waste. You end up with a delicious, healthy product, and it’s easy. Anyone can do this! Anyone. Here’s the recipe.