Flavorful Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce: Easy, Thick, and Freezer-Friendly for Year-Round Enjoyment

Discover the secret to a rich, thick, and incredibly flavorful tomato sauce using an abundance of seasonal small tomatoes. This roasted cherry tomato sauce recipe is delightfully simple to prepare – just toss all the ingredients onto a pan, let your oven work its magic, and watch as humble tomatoes transform into a gourmet creation. Infused with aromatic garlic and a subtle splash of balsamic vinegar, this amazing sauce is not only a taste sensation but also wonderfully freezer-friendly. You’ll want to keep batches of this homemade goodness on hand for quick weeknight pasta dinners, homemade pizzas, and countless other culinary delights.

Some links in this article are affiliate links and if you click on them I will receive a small commission at no cost to you.

If you’ve ever wondered how to elevate simple cherry tomatoes into something truly extraordinary, this recipe is your answer. Roasting cherry tomatoes concentrates their natural sweetness, deepening their flavor and creating a more complex, satisfying sauce than you might expect. The result is a vibrant, rich sauce that tastes like summer in a jar, perfect for brightening up dishes even on the coldest winter days.

My family absolutely adores this roasted cherry tomato sauce, especially with its unique balsamic tang. Its deliciousness and incredible versatility are matched only by how well it freezes. I always prepare large quantities during peak tomato season, ensuring we have a continuous supply of this summery goodness to enjoy all winter long. It’s truly a game-changer for preserving your garden’s bounty or making the most of a great farmers’ market find.

Harnessing the Harvest: What to Do with an Abundance of Cherry Tomatoes

For anyone who cultivates cherry tomatoes, two things quickly become apparent:

• Their exquisite flavor is undeniably addictive.
• Their prolific nature can leave you wondering, “what am I going to do with all these tomatoes?”

Beyond tossing them into your daily salads, cherry tomatoes are incredibly versatile and shine in a variety of dishes. Here are some fantastic ways to utilize your bumper crop:

• Transform them into a great main dish steak salad, adding bursts of freshness and color.
• Integrate them into a pasta salad with delightful Greek flavors – a guaranteed family favorite that’s both hearty and refreshing.
• Feature them prominently in an authentic Greek salad, where their sweetness complements feta and olives beautifully.
• Slice them thinly to brighten up a chicken-spinach frittata (or any frittata, for that matter), adding a juicy, flavorful element.
• Incorporate them into a Greek-style orzo and shrimp dish – one of my go-to easy, one-pot dinners that’s packed with Mediterranean zest.

While it’s clear that cherry tomatoes are wonderfully adaptable in recipes, any gardener knows that a single plant can produce an overwhelming yield for several weeks. There comes a point when you’ve had your fill of fresh eating and salads, and you’re faced with buckets full of these vibrant gems. That’s precisely when a recipe like this roasted cherry tomato sauce becomes an invaluable tool, allowing you to preserve that fresh-from-the-garden taste for months to come.

Dispelling Myths: Do Cherry Tomatoes Make a Good Sauce?

For many years, there was a common misconception that cherry tomatoes weren’t “meant” for sauce-making, often overshadowed by larger, fleshier varieties like Roma tomatoes. However, I’m here to tell you that cherry tomatoes make an absolutely fantastic sauce, especially when roasted!

It’s true that a sauce made solely from cherry tomatoes might not achieve the same silky-smooth consistency as one made with traditional canning tomatoes. This is primarily due to the higher skin-to-flesh ratio and the presence of more seeds. If a super-smooth texture is paramount for your culinary vision, you can easily refine the sauce. After blending, simply strain it through a fine-mesh sieve, a food mill, or a more robust Victorio food strainer to remove any unwanted seeds and skins.

However, many, myself included, find the slight textural variation from the skins and seeds adds to the rustic charm and homemade appeal of this sauce. We happily skip the straining step, not only to save time and effort but also to ensure maximum yield – removing solids will naturally reduce the overall volume of your delicious sauce. The intense, concentrated flavor that emerges from roasting these small tomatoes far outweighs any minor textural differences.

Ingredient Notes & Smart Substitutions for Your Roasted Tomato Sauce

This recipe is incredibly forgiving and adaptable, allowing you to tailor it to your pantry and preference. Here’s a closer look at the key ingredients and how you can make smart substitutions:

• Small Tomatoes: While “cherry tomato sauce” implies cherry tomatoes, feel free to use any type of small tomato you have in abundance. This includes grape tomatoes, oblong varieties, pear-shaped tomatoes, or small round ones. The beauty of this recipe is its flexibility with your harvest. One seasoned reader, who experimented with both single and mixed varieties of small tomatoes, offered a brilliant tip: “If you know your tomatoes are exceptionally sweet, consider adding some less sweet varieties or swapping balsamic vinegar for red wine vinegar to achieve a more complex, less solely sweet flavor profile.” This insight is key for balancing the taste.
• Vinegar: Balsamic vinegar is a star in this recipe, deeply influenced by my favorite roasted tomato sauce. Its sweet and tangy notes are fundamental to the sauce’s rich, multilayered taste. However, if your tomatoes are already very sweet, a switch to red wine vinegar can introduce a drier, more piquant counterpoint. In a pinch, even apple cider vinegar can work, though it will lend a slightly different, fruitier acidity.
• Italian Seasoning: I opt for a pre-made Italian seasoning blend for convenience and consistent flavor. However, don’t hesitate to customize this. Feel free to use your preferred blend of dried herbs like oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary. For an extra layer of freshness, you can also safely add fresh herbs such to the roasting pan because this sauce is intended for immediate consumption or freezing, not canning.
• Red Pepper Flakes: Listed as optional, these small flakes deliver a delightful, subtle kick that truly enhances the sauce’s depth. We are big fans of the slightly spicy warmth they impart, but you can certainly omit them if you prefer a milder sauce or are serving it to children.

Can I Use Frozen Tomatoes for This Sauce?

Absolutely, yes! Using frozen cherry tomatoes is an excellent way to enjoy this delicious sauce even when fresh tomatoes are out of season. It’s perfect for those who’ve prepped their garden harvest for long-term storage.

If you didn’t weigh your tomatoes before freezing them, simply do so before thawing to ensure you get the correct ratio for the other ingredients in the recipe. There’s no need to thaw them beforehand; you can throw them directly into the roasting pan with the olive oil, onions, garlic, and other seasonings. The roasting process will thaw them beautifully, breaking them down and concentrating their flavors just as it would with fresh tomatoes. This makes it incredibly convenient to whip up a batch of this flavorful sauce any time of year.

Crafting Your Homemade Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide

Just like my beloved roasted tomato & vegetable sauce, making this cherry tomato sauce is incredibly easy, yielding maximum flavor with minimal effort. It’s a process designed for simplicity and delicious results!

Step 1: Prep Ingredients & Pan. Begin by preheating your oven to a robust 450 degrees Fahrenheit. This high heat is key to achieving that wonderful roasted caramelization. While the oven heats, drizzle a generous amount of olive oil into a large roasting pan. Wash your cherry tomatoes thoroughly, then cut any larger ones in half to ensure even roasting. Add all the tomatoes to the prepared pan along with the coarsely chopped onions, peeled garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and the optional red pepper flakes. Toss everything together vigorously until the tomatoes and other aromatics are well-coated in the oil and seasonings. Make sure they are spread in a single layer for optimal roasting.

Step 2: Roast to Perfection. Place the roasting pan into your preheated oven. Let the ingredients roast for approximately one hour. During this time, the high heat will work wonders: the tomatoes will burst and soften, their natural sugars will caramelize, and the onions and garlic will become incredibly sweet and tender. Around the 30-minute mark, give everything a good stir to ensure even browning. You’ll know it’s ready when some of the tomatoes and onions have developed a wonderful brown char, and the mixture has visibly broken down into a soft, fragrant pulp. The aroma filling your kitchen will be absolutely amazing, a testament to the concentrated flavors.

Step 3: Blend to Desired Consistency. Once roasted, carefully transfer the hot tomato mixture from the roasting pan into a large saucepan or a deep pot. Now comes the magic of blending! Using a hand-held immersion blender, whir the mixture directly in the pot until it transforms into a thick, smooth, and utterly delicious sauce. Blend until you reach your preferred consistency – some prefer a slightly chunkier sauce, while others opt for complete smoothness. This is also the stage where, if desired, you can pass the sauce through a sieve or food mill to remove any remaining seeds or skins for an extra-silky texture.

Step 4: Serve Fresh or Freeze for Later. The beauty of this sauce is its versatility for immediate enjoyment or long-term preservation. I always allocate a portion to serve for dinner the very night it’s made, typically tossed with pasta or spooned over chicken. The remaining sauce is then allowed to cool completely before being poured into freezer-safe containers, labeled, and carefully placed in the freezer. This ensures that the delightful flavors of summer are locked in and ready to be enjoyed whenever a craving strikes, making meal planning much easier during busier times.

No hand-held immersion blender? No problem! You can still achieve a smooth sauce. Simply transfer the roasted mixture in small batches to a regular blender. Be extremely cautious when blending hot ingredients; hot liquids expand and can spurt out, causing burns. Always leave the lid slightly ajar or remove the small cap in the lid and cover with a kitchen towel to allow steam to escape, and start blending on the lowest speed. This technique ensures safety while still achieving that perfect consistency, a lesson I learned before discovering the convenience of immersion blenders!

Storage Solutions for Your Delicious Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

Proper storage ensures you can enjoy the vibrant flavors of this sauce long after you’ve made it. It’s incredibly versatile for both short-term and long-term keeping:

• Refrigerate: For immediate use, this sauce stores beautifully in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. This makes it an excellent choice for weekly meal prepping, providing a flavorful base for various dishes throughout your busy week.
• Freeze: This is where the magic truly happens for preserving the summer harvest! Your roasted cherry tomato sauce can be frozen for more than a year without significant loss of quality or flavor. You can use any freezer-safe containers you prefer, from plastic tubs to heavy-duty freezer bags. Personally, I love using glass mason jars for freezing. When filling them, remember to leave a full 2 inches of headspace from the rim. This crucial space allows the liquid to expand as it freezes, preventing the jars from cracking. While I do occasionally lose a jar to breakage, the benefits of glass – easy thawing, no worry about microplastics leaching into food, and visibility – make it a worthwhile choice for me.

Here’s probably the most-asked question about this sauce, and it’s an important one:

Is It Okay to Can This Sauce? A Crucial Safety Note

No, it is unequivocally not recommended to can this sauce, whether through pressure canning or water-bath canning. Food safety is paramount, and this recipe has not been specifically tested for canning. The ratios of ingredients, particularly the acidity levels from the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar, have not been scientifically verified for safe home canning. Additionally, this is a relatively thick sauce, which further complicates the canning process and can make it more dangerous without a rigorously tested and approved recipe.

The good news is that this sauce is SO EASY to freeze and thaw, making canning unnecessary. Just imagine the pure delight of pulling a container of this vibrant, sun-kissed sauce from your freezer in the dead of January, bringing a taste of summer straight to your dinner table. Freezing offers a safe, simple, and equally effective way to preserve this incredible flavor!

I genuinely hope you fall in love with this 5-star roasted cherry tomato sauce as much as we have. Its rich, concentrated flavor and effortless preparation make it an indispensable addition to your recipe collection. If you try this recipe, please be sure to leave a rating and share your thoughts – your feedback helps fellow cooks discover and enjoy this fantastic sauce!

Print Recipe
Pin Recipe
SaveSaved!

5 from 48 votes

Easy Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce – Eat Fresh or Freeze

Roasted cherry tomato sauce is rich, thick, and freezer-friendly flavored with onions, garlic, and balsamic, that uses any small tomatoes.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time1 hour hr

Total Time1 hour hr 10 minutes mins

Yield: 2 quarts

Author: Jami Boys

Equipment

• large roasting pan
• 4-quart or larger pot
• Immersion hand held blender or regular blender (use with caution for hot ingredients)

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons good quality olive oil
• 4 to 5 pounds cherry tomatoes fresh or frozen, washed well, large ones cut in half for even roasting
• 2 medium yellow onions coarsely chopped
• 6 cloves fresh garlic peeled and left whole or roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or red wine vinegar for sweeter tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning or a blend of your favorite Italian herbs like oregano, basil, and thyme*
• 2 teaspoons salt adjust to taste after blending
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes optional, for a subtle heat

Instructions

• Prepare for Roasting: Preheat your oven to 450°F (232°C). Drizzle the olive oil generously into a large, sturdy roasting pan.
• Combine Ingredients: Add the washed cherry tomatoes (halved if large), chopped onions, peeled garlic cloves, balsamic vinegar, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and optional red pepper flakes to the roasting pan. Toss all the ingredients thoroughly until they are evenly coated with the olive oil and seasonings. Spread them out into a single layer as much as possible for even roasting.
• Roast until Tender and Caramelized: Place the roasting pan in the preheated oven and roast for about 60 minutes. Midway through the roasting process (around 30 minutes), give the mixture a good stir to ensure even cooking and browning. Continue roasting until the tomatoes have burst and softened, the onions are tender and slightly caramelized, and some of the edges of the vegetables begin to brown beautifully. This browning is essential for developing the deep, rich flavor of the sauce.
• Blend to Smoothness: Carefully transfer the hot roasted tomato mixture to a large saucepan or deep pot. Use an immersion blender to whir the ingredients until they form a thick, smooth, and delicious sauce. Alternatively, if you don’t have an immersion blender, you can process the mixture in batches in a regular blender. Exercise extreme caution with hot ingredients when using a regular blender – vent the lid slightly to allow steam to escape and blend on a low speed to prevent splatters. If you desire a super silky sauce, you can pass it through a fine-mesh sieve or a food mill at this stage to remove any seeds or skins. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed, adding more salt or pepper if desired.
• Serve or Store: Your delectable roasted cherry tomato sauce is now ready to enjoy! Serve it immediately over your favorite pasta, as a base for pizza, or alongside grilled meats. For future enjoyment, allow the sauce to cool completely to room temperature. Once cool, divide it into freezer-safe containers (leaving appropriate headspace if using jars), label with the date, and freeze for long-term storage.

Notes

*Feel free to experiment with fresh herbs like basil, oregano, or thyme during the roasting process. Since this sauce is eaten fresh or frozen (not canned), adding fresh herbs is perfectly safe and adds another layer of vibrant flavor.

This sauce maintains its excellent quality and flavor for more than a year when properly stored in the freezer, making it ideal for preserving your abundant tomato harvest.

IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTE: This recipe is NOT suitable for either pressure canning or water-bath canning. Its pH balance and thickness have not been tested for safe home canning methods. Please rely on freezing for preservation.

Nutrition

Serving: 1/4 cup | Calories: 26kcal | Carbohydrates: 3.7g | Protein: 0.8g | Fat: 1.2g | Saturated Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 0mg | Sodium: 151mg | Fiber: 1.1g | Sugar: 2.2g

Did you make this recipe?Mention @anoregoncottage or tag #anoregoncottage!

More Delicious Cherry Tomato Recipes to Try

If you’re still looking for ways to use up those delightful cherry tomatoes, here are a few more family-favorite recipes where they truly shine:

• Easy Main Dish Steak Salad with Creamy Garlic-Pepper Dressing: A refreshing and satisfying meal where cherry tomatoes add bright flavor and texture.
• Greek Style Pasta Salad with Green Beans and Tomatoes: Perfect for picnics or potlucks, this pasta salad gets a burst of Mediterranean goodness from fresh cherry tomatoes.
• Chicken-Spinach Frittata: Elevate your breakfast or brunch with juicy cherry tomatoes baked into a fluffy frittata.

Disclosure: affiliate links in this article will earn commission based on sales, but it doesn’t change your price. Click here to read our full disclaimer and advertising disclosure.