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This homemade roasted garlic tomato sauce is packed full of fresh summer tomatoes and lots of roasted garlic. Canning instructions included!
I’m at it again. I can’t stop canning!
When I saw the recipe for this roasted garlic tomato sauce I knew it had to be made.
How could I pass up something that sounded that delicious?
I went down to my local farmers’ stand and picked up a basket of tomatoes, garlic, green peppers, and fresh herbs.
The sauce took a while to make but nothing smells better than tomato sauce simmering on the stove.
The roasted garlic made my house smell amazing too.
I was in foodie-smell heaven.
The sauce is (obviously) flavored heavily with garlic but it also includes freshly roasted peppers and TONS of fresh herbs.
It’s definitely one of my (new) favorite sauces!
For the sauce, the tomatoes have to be peeled.
If you do not know how to easily peel tomatoes (this works for peaches too) you are going to love this little tip.
Get a pot of boiling water on the stove.
In a large bowl add ice and fill with cold water.
Cut out the stem of the tomato and drop a few tomatoes in the boiling water.
Let them hang out in the water for about 10 seconds then, using a slotted spoon, take them out of the boiling water and into the ice bath.
Let them cool in the ice bath before you try to handle them.
They will be hot.
Once cool, take out of the ice water and the skins should peel right off.
Some people like to use a paring knife to help with the peeling but I find it easiest to just peel the skin off using my hands.
More tomato recipes
- Instant Pot Tomato Soup
- Roasted Tomato Goat Cheese Pasta
- Summertime Tomato Sandwich
- On The Vine Roasted Tomatoes
Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 6 heads of garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 medium red, yellow or green sweet peppers, halved and seeded
- 12 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves – chopped
- 1 cup lightly packed assorted fresh herbs – oregano, thyme, parsley
- 6 tablespoons lemon juice, use bottled lemon juice not fresh
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Peel away the dry outer layers of skin from garlic bulbs, leaving other skin and cloves intact. Cut about 1/2 inch off pointed top portions, leaving bulbs intact but exposing the individual cloves.
- Place the garlic heads, cut side up, in a 1 to 1 1/2 quart casserole dish. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Cover casserole dish.
- On another foil lined baking sheet, arrange peppers cut side down and brush with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil.
- Roast garlic and peppers for 40-50 minutes or until pepper skins are charred and garlic cloves are soft. Cool garlic on a wire rack until cool enough to handle.
- For the peppers, pull up sides of foil and pinch together to fully enclose the peppers. Let peppers stand for 15-20 minutes or until cool enough to handle. Peel off skins and discard. Chop peppers, set aside.
- Remove garlic cloves from paper skins by squeezing the bottoms of the bulbs. Place garlic cloves in a food processor. Cut peeled tomatoes into chunks, add some chunks to the garlic in food processor. Cover and process until chopped.
- Transfer chopped garlic and tomatoes to a 7-8 quart stainless steel, enamel or nonstick heavy pot. Repeat chopping the remaining tomatoes, in batches, in the food processor. Add all tomatoes to the pot.
- Add brown sugar, salt, vinegar, and black pepper to the tomato mixture. Bring to boiling. Boil steadily, uncovered, for 50 minutes, stirring often. Add chopped peppers to tomato mixture. Boil for 10 to 20 minutes more or until mixture is reduced to about 11 cups and reaches desired consistency. Remove from heat, stir in basil and herbs.
- Spoon 1 tablespoon of the lemon juice into each of the six hot, sterilized pint canning jars. Ladle hot sauce into jars with lemon juice, leaving a 1/2 inch headspace. Wipe jar rims, adjust lids.
- Process filled jars in a boiling water canner for 35 minutes (start timing when the water returns to boiling) Remove jars from the canner, cool on wire racks.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I’m a bit obsessed with Italian right now. You can bet I’ll make this!
this looks amazing!
This looks just heavenly!
Nanny: Regarding your roasted garlic tomatoe recipe. There is no such thing as rip tomatoes. Maybe ripe? I’m not complaing. I’m just compulsive. I love you web site. You go girl. Thanks.
Oops! I’m off to change it…thanks!
This is outstanding. Was tired of my old canning sauce, which suffered if it wasn’t a good year for tomatoes. This year wasn’t; the roasted garlic and peppers make the sauce more complex and it is DELICIOUS. Thank you so much for this recipe. We enjoyed it last night with eggplant parmesan and it was terrific.
Hi Liz! Thank you so much for letting me know you enjoyed the sauce. The roasted garlic really puts this sauce over the top. Plus it smells amazing when it’s cooking 🙂
So, I was cleaning up after using this recipe to process 50# of tomatoes and noticed I didn’t add the lemon juice to the bottom of the jars. How is that going to affect my jars? 🙁
Hi Kandra! In my personal opinion the lemon juice is needed. Modern tomatoes are breed to not be as acidic so you need that extra dose of acid to be sure they are canned safely. There are a few options I can offer:
1 – If it’s been less than 24 hours since you canned the items you can redo the process with new lids and add the lemon juice.
2 – Freeze the sauce in freezer safe containers. I freeze summer sauce all the time and it turns out great! I like to store it in soup sized tupperware I find at the dollar store. It stays fresh and the containers are super cheap.
3 – If you only made a little (which I’m assuming you didn’t since you said you processed 50# of tomatoes…eek!) you can safely store it in the fridge for awhile until you use it up.
I’m not an expert on re-processing but here is a helpful article from a trusted source: https://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09341.html (scroll down and read the red block on the right hand side titled “reprocessing”)
When adding the peppers, garlic, and the herbs, does this not reduce the acidity, even more and is the lemon juice, enough? Or should this recipe be processed in a pressure cooker canner?
Hi Deborah! Yes, normally adding in all those extra ingredients will lower the acidity. However, this recipe is from a tested and trusted source (Better Homes & Gardens) so I feel confident with their assessment of how much lemon juice to add. I have made this several times in a water bath and never had an issue but if using a pressure cooker makes you feel more secure I’m sure you can find a conversion online 🙂 Happy canning!
Hey there!
Just curious if you have used this recipe post-canning in lasagna? My last batch was a little watery (a different recipe), so I’m looking forward to trying this recipe to see if I have a little better luck! Could just be the newbie canner in me, really excited to have more accurate measurements to try (we kind of made up the last one I tried…could be why it was watery too, ha!)
Hi Michelle! I have not used this sauce in lasagna but it’s my go-to sauce for spaghetti and meat sauce. My dad also likes to use this sauce in chili 🙂 I hope you give it a try and I’m sure it will be delicious in lasagna!
Very tasty. Worth the time and effort. Followed the recipe with the exception of adding some chopped tomatoes toward the end of the cooking time, Did not add lemon juice as I am freezing the sauce. The addition of some vegetable broth and a splash of cream makes this an excellent base for a very tasty tomato soup.
Is it ok to add dry herbs?
Hi Tamra! Yes, but you will want to add a bit less since dried is more concentrated. Enjoy!