Roasted Tomato Marinara ~ fresh, homemade pasta sauce with garden or farm stand tomatoes, garlic, onion, olive oil and basil. Ladle over your favorite pasta for a delicious comforting meal.
Am I the only one wondering where the summer has gone? I can’t believe it’s almost Labor Day weekend, but I know it is because here in the Midwest we’re picking baskets of tomatoes almost daily. If you’re in the same boat or can’t pass a farm stand without buying a bushel of these red beauties, this recipe is for you.
Roasted Tomato Marinara pasta sauce is one of life’s simplest pleasures. Simple to make and roasting tomatoes (or any vegetable) intensifies their already delicious flavor. Isn’t it time you started hitting the sauce?
Roasting the tomatoes is the secret to the best sauce. It reduces their juices, caramelizes them and concentrates their flavor.
The tomatoes, onion and garlic are slathered in olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper then oven roasted. Once everything cools, a few pulses in the blender along with some fresh basil and you have Roasted Tomato Marinara. It’s that simple.
what’s in Roasted Tomato Marinara:
12-15 Roma or San Marzano tomatoes
4 cloves of garlic
1 medium onion, rough chopped
1/4 cup of olive oil
sea salt and black pepper
1/2 cup fresh basil
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees then wash, quarter and core the tomatoes. Use your thumb to slide the seeds and goop from the inside the tomato (it’s okay if a little remains).
Line the tomatoes on a baking sheet. I have two kinds of baking sheets: new-looking ones for baking cookies and battle-worn, stained sheets for roasting vegetables. I don’t know why, but I felt you needed to know that.
Rough chop one medium size onion and 4-5 cloves of garlic (depending on their size). Tuck the garlic cloves into the ‘pocket’ of the tomatoes to protect them from burning. This also allows the tomatoes to absorb all that yummy garlic flavor.
Drizzle the olive oil over the tomatoes and garlic then season with salt and pepper and load them into the oven. After about 20 minutes give it all a good stir scraping the brown/caramelized bits from the pan and blend them into the tomato mixture for even more amazing flavor.
Continue cooking the tomatoes another 20-25 minutes until they’re concentrated and caramelized.
Once the tomato mixture has completely cooled, rough chop the basil and add the tomatoes and basil to the blender, pulsing several times to blend. Taste the Roasted Tomato Marinara and adjust the salt as necessary.
Uses for Roasted Tomato Marinara:
- Serve over your favorite pasta including ravioli, gnocchi or even meatballs.
- Add milk, cream or half and half for a delicious, bowl of tomato soup served with a grilled cheese sandwich.
- Enjoy with Chicken Parmesan.
I hope this encourages you to roast some tomatoes. You won’t flavor like it anywhere else. Eat now or freeze flat in quart size zip top bags.
Enjoy!
If you tried this Roasted Tomato Marinara recipe or any other on the blog I’d love to hear from you with a comment or star rating in the recipe box.
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Roasted Tomato Marinara
Ingredients
- 12-15 San Marzano or Roma tomatoes
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 medium onion rough chopped
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/2 cup fresh basil
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash, core and quarter the tomatoes. Use your thumb to remove the goop from the inside the tomato.
- Line the tomatoes on a baking sheet. Add the chopped onion and garlic.
- Drizzle on the olive oil over the tomatoes and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes then stir scraping all the brown/caramelized bits from the pan and blend it into your tomato mixture.
- Continue cooking the tomatoes another 20-25 minutes or until the tomatoes are concentrated and caramelized on the edges.
- Cool completely then rough chop the basil and add the tomatoes and basil to the blender. Pulse several times to combine.
- Taste and adjust the salt as necessary.
Melynda says
I like this oven method, it must produce a robust sauce. Thanks!
Bernie says
Hi Melynda! This is my absolute favorite sauce recipe. So easy and yes – very robust flavor. Thank YOU for stopping by ~ enjoy the weekend!
Mary says
For some reason I’m just now seeing this post. Goodness gracious – this looks so good, really really good. We are getting a Trader Joe’s this fall….can’t wait. I’ll be on the lookout for the items you listed above especially the ravioli. Will be making this marinara soon (using different pasta). Love that it can be used to make tomato soup. Pinned. Thanks for sharing.
Bernie says
I think you’ll absolutely love Trader Joe’s ~ lucky you they’re coming to your neighborhood! Let me know if you find some other favorites there once they open. I’d love to try them. Thanks so much for your kind words and as always for stopping by.