This easy homemade pasta sauce is one you can make the next time you serve up spaghetti or lasagna. See how simple it is to skip the jarred stuff and make your own sauce right on your stovetop!
What Makes this Homemade Pasta Sauce Amazing?
I’ve said again and again that the best tomato you will ever eat is the one you grow yourself. And, it’s so true! Although I typically use San Marzano tomatoes in my fresh and simple tomato sauce, this homemade pasta sauce recipe uses tomatoes I have in true abundance all season long, cherry tomatoes! Imagine serving this sauce to your family over one you bought in a jar in a store. That jar of sauce likely has all kinds of things you can’t pronounce on its label!
I love going out to my garden with a large bowl early in the morning and picking the reddest, brightest cherry tomatoes on my vines. Like these!
And right now, that means every day I am picking HUNDREDS of them! There is nothing like seeing a tiny tomato seed you plant grow into a huge plant that produces hundreds of fruits. After growing several varieties over the past few years, my clear favorite is Jasper from Johnny’s Seeds. They are sweet, super flavorful, and so juicy. In other words, exactly what you want in your fresh homemade pasta sauce!
However, the last thing you want is to waste them come harvesting time. And, let’s face it, even if you love tomatoes as much as I do, picking hundreds a day can quickly get you to tomato fatigue. So I came up with this easy pasta sauce that takes full advantage of all my tomato bounty.
Beyond the tomatoes, all you need for this recipe is olive oil, some fresh or jarred garlic, basil, and pepper. Because cherry tomatoes are typically seedy, I finish off the sauce after it’s cooled with my immersion blender to blend them in. However, if you like chunky sauce, you can skip that step.
How to Clean Cherry Tomatoes
You’ll want to make sure you remove any dirt, bugs, and garden crud that may be on the tomatoes. Don’t skip this step! To easily clean tomatoes, soak them for 15 minutes in a one-part white vinegar to three parts water solution. Although you can purchase a produce cleaner at a store, this one works great and you likely already have white vinegar in your home. It’s the ultimate DIY produce cleaner, and it’s cheap!
How to Make Homemade Pasta Sauce
It’s super easy to make this homemade pasta sauce. First, you’ll heat some olive oil in a skillet. Then you’ll add 4 cloves of minced garlic, fresh or jarred, and cook until the garlic is soft and fragrant, for about 4 minutes. I personally prefer the taste of fresh garlic, but if you’re short on time, the jarred kind in oil is just fine to use. Then you’ll add 4 cups of fresh and clean cherry tomatoes. If you want to make more sauce, you can easily double the recipe, which is what I have done a few times.
Cherry tomatoes will start breaking down as you cook them, but to speed the process along, you can crush them with a potato masher or a slotted wooden spoon. You’ll cook them over low heat for approximately twenty minutes. Finally, you’ll add about a cup of basil leaves, cut into small pieces and sprinkle and stir in some freshly ground pepper.
That’s it! Easy, right? Right!
Ingredients
- 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves of fresh, minced garlic, or jarred minced garlic
- 4 cups of fresh, clean cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup of fresh basil, chopped into small pieces
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
Directions
- De-stem 4 cups of cherry tomatoes and place them in a bowl with a 1:3 ration of white vinegar and water. Soak them for 15 minutes, then drain them in a colander and rinse with water.
- Heat a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat, then add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Add the drained tomatoes to the oil in the pan and cook for 20-30 minutes, gradually mashing them with the back of a spoon as they soften.
- Using herb scissors or a small, sharp knife, cut 1 cup of basil leaves into small pieces and add to the skillet with the tomatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.
- Finish off the sauce by adding a few twists of freshly ground pepper and serve immediately.
Tips
This sauce texture is chunky. If you prefer a thinner sauce, let it cool a bit and then transfer it to a blender, or use an immersion blender stick to puree it smooth.
Can you freeze this Easy Homemade Pasta Sauce?
Absolutely! This sauce can easily be frozen to enjoy later in plastic containers like these. They’re made in the USA, are food safe, and contain no BPA. What’s not to love?
Easy Homemade Pasta Sauce
This flavorful tomato sauce uses the tomatoes that always grow in abundance, cherry tomatoes. Skip the jarred sauce and make this easy homemade pasta sauce instead!
Ingredients
- 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
- 4 cloves of fresh, minced garlic, or jarred minced garlic
- 4 cups of fresh, clean cherry tomatoes
- 1 cup of fresh basil, chopped into small pieces
- Freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
- De-stem 4 cups of cherry tomatoes and place them in a bowl with a 1:3 ration of white vinegar and water. Soak them for 15 minutes, then drain them in a colander and rinse with water.
- Heat a large skillet or saute pan over medium heat, then add 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil.
- Add the drained tomatoes to the oil in the pan and cook for 20-30 minutes, gradually mashing them with the back of a spoon as they soften.
- Using herb scissors or a small, sharp knife, cut 1 cup of basil leaves into small pieces and add to the skillet with the tomatoes. Cook for another 10 minutes.
- Finish off the sauce by adding a few twists of freshly ground pepper and serve immediately.
Notes
This sauce texture is chunky. If you prefer a thinner sauce, let it cool a bit and then transfer it to a blender, or use an immersion blender stick to puree it smooth.
You can freeze this sauce to use in recipes later.
Leave a Reply