How to Make the Best Garden Fresh Tomato Sauce From Scratch

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We grow a lot of tomatoes every year; approximately 35 to 40 plants (that’s rookie numbers for some folks, but we’re a small family). By mid-July, our kitchen counter is lined with probably hundreds of ripening tomatoes that need to be used or preserved.

When it comes to preserving the garden harvest, tomatoes can be a little overwhelming, especially if you have a lot of plants and end up with loads of tomatoes coming in all at once. Many tomato preserving methods are super tedious. They require all kinds of steps like blanching, peeling, coring, de-seeding, dicing, etc.   

Since my husband often has to work long hours, many of my preserving projects end up being a one-woman show. That’s why I love this easy, low-effort tomato sauce recipe. It only requires around 15 – 20 minutes of hands-on time; that means I can deal with other things that need dealing with while it simmers. By the time it’s done, you’ll have a thick, lush sauce that’s perfect for pasta dishes or other recipes. You can use it fresh, freeze it in portions for later, or even can it for the pantry, if you want.

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Equipment for Homemade Tomato Sauce

Food Mill

If your intention is to grow and preserve a lot of your own tomatoes, I strongly recommend investing in a food mill. This gadget is key to removing the seeds and peels in just a couple minutes, without all that blanching, peeling, and de-seeding.

I have the old-school type of food mill like my grandma used, which you turn by hand. The mill forces the sauce through a sieve as you turn the handle, allowing the good stuff through while catching 95% of the seeds and peels. You can also get electric food mills, but they take up more space and are harder to clean (that’s a big deal, for me). I prefer the manual type, since they’re so easy (and satisfying) to use.

A food mill is a fabulous tool to have on hand for home preserving in general, not just tomatoes. It’s also useful for other projects, such as removing seeds and pith when making applesauce or homemade jellies. Plus, a good-quality, stainless steel tool that doesn’t rely on a motor will basically last you forever. I’ve been using this food mill for a while now for canning and preserving, and it’s nice and efficient.

So, do you REALLY have to remove seeds and peels for homemade tomato sauce? I’ve seen quite a few recipes where folks say they don’t bother, so I guess it’s a personal preference. In my opinion, loads of seeds and peel fragments interfere with the texture of the sauce. Crunching on seeds and getting little peel bits in every bite really ruins a plate of spaghetti, for me. Removing them with the food mill only takes a few minutes for a huge pot of sauce, so it’s worth the extra step.

Immersion Blender

An immersion blender is another extremely useful tool to have around the kitchen for folks who like to cook from scratch and preserve food. For this tomato sauce, it’s handy for quickly breaking down the cooked tomatoes so your sauce is easy to run through the food mill. If you don’t have one, you can crush them thoroughly with a potato masher and make it work. It’ll just take a little more elbow grease.

A Big Ol’ Pot

How big your pot needs to be depends on how many tomatoes you want to process. I prefer to wait until I have enough tomatoes to fill my 16 quart stockpot pretty full for a big batch of sauce. This recipe is really flexible, though; you could easily either reduce or add to the amount of tomatoes listed in the recipe for more or less sauce, adjusting seasonings as needed.

Ingredients for Tomato Sauce

Tomatoes, of Course

Though some tomato varieties are considered better for making sauce (paste tomato varieties), it really doesn’t matter what kind of tomatoes you use. The only real difference you’ll notice is that slicing tomatoes will cook down a little more, since they contain more liquid than paste tomatoes like Roma. This means you may end up with slightly less finished sauce from the same amount of tomatoes.

In my kitchen, any tomatoes I have that need to be used promptly go in the pot. Paste tomatoes, giant slicers, cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, orange tomatoes, red tomatoes, purple tomatoes, and so on.

This sauce is also a great way to make use of those “ugly” tomatoes you always end up with whenever you grow your own. I.e., tomatoes with bad spots, mild blossom end rot, catfacing, caterpillar damage, etc. Just cut off the questionable parts and put the good stuff in the pot.

Onions and Garlic

Fresh onions and lots of garlic add an unbeatable depth of flavor when simmered in with this sauce. I like to use sweet onions, but any type of onions will taste great.

Balsamic Vinegar

An optional splash of good quality balsamic vinegar freshens up the sauce and takes it from good tomato sauce to impressive tomato sauce. If you’re going for a more basic tomato sauce rather than an Italian-style pasta sauce, you can skip the balsamic vinegar and add a pinch of sugar instead.

Spices and Seasonings

You can season your tomato sauce when you make it, or you can add seasonings later when using it in recipes. I usually go ahead and season with salt, pepper, thyme, sage, oregano, and maybe some dried basil or parsley if I have some in the spice cabinet. If you prefer a more basic and versatile sauce, you can stick with just salt and/or pepper.

Instructions for Making Tomato Sauce

Prep the Veggies

Peel a bulb or two of garlic and slice a couple onions into quarters so they’re ready to go. Then, wash your tomatoes and cut off any blemishes or damaged spots. Cut larger tomatoes into quarters and remove the tough parts near the core/stem end so they’ll start to cook down faster. Cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and paste tomatoes can go in whole.

When I’m getting the sauce going, I toss the tomatoes in the pot as I work through them. Add the onions and garlic once the pot is around halfway full, before adding the rest of the tomatoes. This gives them a head start on simmering in the liquid the tomatoes will release (and prevents them from scorching at the bottom of the pot).

Cook it Down

Put a lid on the pot and turn the heat to medium-low. If you’re using a lot of whole cherry, grape, or paste tomatoes in your sauce, I suggest adding a splash of water to the pot to keep the tomatoes from sticking at the beginning.  

After a few minutes of cooking, the tomatoes will start to soften and release their juices. Remove the lid, give everything a good stirring, and continue simmering until all the tomatoes have broken down and the onions and garlic have cooked through. This usually takes about 30 minutes or so. At this point, the onions, garlic, and all tomatoes should be very soft and easy to crush with a spoon.

Once the tomatoes are cooked down, turn the heat off and let the pot cool for a few minutes. This way, you’re not trying to handle scalding hot sauce for the next few steps.  

Blend and Process

Using the immersion blender, blend the mixture until it’s fairly smooth, without any large chunks. Don’t over-blend unless you’re aiming for a very smooth sauce. I like a thicker sauce with some of the pulp still intact.

Next, working in batches, ladle the blended sauce into the food mill and process it to remove the seeds and peels. I usually set the food mill up over a second pot, which I’ll then use to simmer and reduce the sauce. You could also process the sauce into a large bowl and then pour it back into the same pot you started with.

Most food mills come with several different sieve discs to choose from, depending on whether you want a fine or coarse texture in the final sauce. I like using the “medium” sieve for a slightly chunky, mostly seed-free sauce. The coarse sieve lets way too many tiny tomato seeds pass through. The fine sieve with the smallest holes will catch every single seed, but you’ll end up with a super thin sauce. When using the medium sieve, you may have a few seeds sneak through, but you won’t lose every bit of the tomato pulp (and the flavor that comes with it).

Reduce the Sauce

After processing the sauce in the food mill, return it to the stove, add your desired seasonings, and bring it to a gentle but consistent simmer on medium-low heat. Using a heavy-bottomed sauce pot or stock pot for this step helps a lot to prevent sticking and maintain a nice, steady simmer.

Let the sauce simmer uncovered until it has reduced by half of the original volume, stirring every now and then to make sure it’s not sticking. This can take up to two hours or a little longer, if you have a big pot of sauce. Don’t be tempted to rush this step; properly reducing the sauce is key to getting that rich tomato flavor and thick, velvety texture. If the sauce isn’t reduced for long enough, it’ll be bland and watery.

Preserving Homemade Tomato Sauce

Unless you’re planning to make pasta for a really huge family reunion, you’ll probably want to preserve this tomato sauce in portions to use later. Since I’m really busy during tomato season, the freezer is my go-to method to preserve tomato sauce. Tomato sauce freezes well and will keep for up to a year this way. Some liquid may separate from frozen tomato sauce once thawed, but all you need to do is simmer your dish a couple extra minutes to cook off any excess water.

Before freezing tomato sauce, let it cool on the counter for a while, then stick it in the fridge until chilled. I usually refrigerate the sauce overnight and then freeze it the next morning. Divide up chilled tomato sauce into freezer bags or other freezer-safe containers in your desired portions. About two cups is roughly equal to the amount in a standard can or jar of store-bought sauce. I’ve found that ladling the sauce into a measuring cup with a pour spout makes transferring it to the freezer bags easier and less messy.

When you want to use a bag of frozen tomato sauce, it thaws pretty quickly in the fridge. If you forget to set it out, though, it’s no big deal. You can throw it in the pot frozen with your other ingredients, and it’ll be thawed within a few minutes on the heat.    

If you’ve got the time and motivation (I usually do not), you can also water bath can or pressure can this tomato sauce to make it shelf stable for the pantry. See the recipe instructions below for basic canning guidelines.