I have a secret that allows me to make pizza sauce for the whole year, in just a few hours (and most of that time is spent drinking wine and relaxing while the sauce does its thing). It’s roasting! You just have to try this roasted tomato pizza sauce made with garden-grown heirloom tomatoes.
Roasting the garlic and tomatoes fresh from the garden sweetens up the couldn’t-be-more-fresh flavor and means there is no need to slave over your sauce to reduce it and build flavor.
This year I started with some meaty beefsteaks that were a gift from my neighbor, but every year I just use the best tomatoes from the garden. The flavor will be different year after year, but it’s always delicious. I cut off the top of a garlic bulb and throw that sucker in the roasting pot too. Drizzle a healthy amount of olive oil over the cut sides and pop in the oven.
Now, go drink some wine.
When the roasting is done, throw the tomatoes into a large pot that you have sweated some onions in. Don’t worry about the skins! You can if you want to, I suppose. They should easily pop off and if they don’t, then just leave them. You won’t notice them, I swear. Squeeze the roasted garlic from the skins into the pot and simmer.
Time for more wine!
When you have finished your wine, grab an immersion blender and blend the whole thing up. Really give it a good blending if you left those skins on, but really, you can do this with one hand (leaving one free for more wine, maybe?). Leave the sauce to thicken on the stove until you are happy with the consistency.
Pack into clean jars and freeze to preserve.
You can leave the sauce in plain jars, of course, but I like to pretty mine up a bit with labels and a little tag, especially if I am giving my sauce away as a gift.
More Recipes from the Garden:
- Add Some Color to the Table with Flowerfetti Salad
- Chive Blossom Vinegar and Vinaigrette
- Fresh Herb Finishing Salt Recipe
- Growing, Harvesting, + a Three-Course Meal with Shishito Peppers
- 16 Recipes to Use and Preserve Fresh Basil
- Rhubarb Sorbet Recipe
Stephanie – I am interested in “canning” rather than freezing your Roasted Heirloom Tomato Pizza Sauce recipe. Can this be done? If so, what would the time be in a hot water canner? How many pints? quarts? does your recipe make? Sure hope you can help me on this; my freezer is just not big enough to handle a large number of jars.
To water bath it, your would have to add lemon juice to increase the acidity. Would be best to pressure can it–no need to add lemon, because you might not like the flavor of the added lemon. Check the Ball Blue Book and use their recipe/directions for plain tomato sauce.
If you don’t like the taste that the lemon juice adds to to your canned products (like me), try citric acid instead. It doesn’t impact the flavor. Ball and Mrs. Wages both offer citric acid.
Hi Judy, I can’t recommend changes to this recipe for canning, as there is some concern about the safety of canned tomatoes in a water bath. Some say it’s fine, others say that you need a pressure canner. I freeze this sauce just to be safe. You can look for a canning recipe for tomato sauce though, but use a trusted source. Thanks!
Hi Stephanie – Thanks for your input. Since the question about canning in a water bath, I have acquired a pressure canner (thanks hubby). So without modifying your recipe, I took your advice and found a similar recipe for tomato sauce in the Ball Canning book. I think it will suffice for the roasted tomato recipe of yours. Thanks again for the help. Judy
What a gem of a hubby you have there, Judy! Congrats on your new toy. Have fun.
I can’t wait to try this, we have loads of tomatoes coming in now! Would you care to share your cute labels and tag as a PDF?
Thanks for the recipe!
Dottie