Originally shared in 2013, this recipe is a FAVORITE and now is the perfect time of year to make up a batch! I hope you love it!
This roasted marinara recipe could not be any easier and it beats jarred or canned sauce by a landslide. I admittedly tried to make a homemade marinara sauce in the crockpot last fall and it was a MAJOR fail. I don’t know why, but it just tasted bitter and blah. But this, this is how you make marinara sauce – roasted.
The measurements in this recipe are just a suggestion. It’s what I ended up putting into my marinara sauce, but add more of what you like and less of what you don’t. I’m fairly certain you can’t mess this up.
- Tomatoes – About 5 pounds - I used a combination of roma, cherry, and glacier – some from my garden, some store bought. Dice large ones and leave cherry tomatoes whole. Remove stems.
- Fresh Basil – Cup (packed) with fresh basil leaves, washed (whole leaves), stems removed
- Fresh Garlic – Whole cloves, about 10 or ¼ Cup -I like garlic, use less if this sounds like too much
- Zucchini – 1 – 2 zucchinis, diced in ½″ thick slices
- Onions – Two medium onions, quartered - I used a red onion and a Walla Walla Sweet onion (from my garden)
- Olive oil – About 2 Tablespoons
- Balsamic Vinegar – 1 Tablespoon (optional)
- Salt – ¾ Tablespoon
- Italian Seasoning – 1 Tablespoon
- Ground Pepper – To taste
- Preheat oven to 400 degree F.
- Wash and chop all your vegetables. If you have large tomatoes, quarter them. Basically you want everything about the same size when you chop it up – so it all cooks at the same rate.
- Once all your vegetables are chopped, toss them into a roasting pan or glass pyrex pan. Drizzle olive oil and balsamic vinegar over vegetables. Add salt, italian seasoning and ground pepper to taste.
- Pop in the oven. Cook 45-60 minutes at 400 degrees. You can take the pan out about half way through and give it a good stir. If you have enough for multiple pans, rotate them on the shelves so they cook evenly.
- Remove from oven. Allow to cool.
- Once cool to touch, use a slotted spoon to scoop vegetables into a food processor, blender or Blendtec/Vitamix. I recommend a slotted spoon because I found I had a lot of liquid from my tomatoes – leave the juice in the pan, you can add more later.
- Puree your vegetables. The longer you puree, the smoother the sauce. If you had very seedy tomatoes, puree a bit longer to help break those up. Scoop in liquid from your roasting pan to get it to the consistency you would like. You can always freeze this liquid for tomato soups or to add to sauce at a later time (I didn’t want to throw mine away!). If it’s not thick enough for you, try adding some tomato paste.
- Freeze in Ziploc bags or freezer bags. Or if you’re up for it, can it!
I knew the recipe was a keeper when my daughter sat down, right there on the kitchen floor and ate a bowl of it, without noodles, without cheese. She loved it! So it’s kid-approved, in case you’re wondering.
I’d love to hear what you think about this recipe! I’m excited to get more tomatoes and try some different variations. I might try to add the basil in fresh to the food processor – I bet that would give it a vibrant color and possibly a stronger flavor.
Leave a Reply