Smoke Roasted Tomato Sauce

This Smoke Roasted Tomato Sauce offers a simple, tasty method to cook garden tomatoes. Slow roasting tomatoes and vegetables over a wood fire intensifies their sweetness and adds a subtle smoky flavor to the sauce.

Homemade Roasted Tomato Sauce

I often have many fresh tomatoes in my garden during the late summer. This year, I harvested nearly 50 pounds and decided to make homemade roasted tomato sauce. Roasting the tomatoes first adds a fantastic flavor to the sauce. You can enjoy this delicious sauce immediately or store it in the fridge or freezer for later use.

If you like canning, you can store this sauce in mason jars. Be sure to follow the safety guidelines in this document for processing tomato sauce. We usually finish the sauce before it spoils in the freezer. I prefer to use quart-sized freezer bags for storage. In a regular freezer, the sauce lasts 6 weeks. It can last up to 6 months in a deep freezer.

How to Make Roasted Tomato Sauce

Making your own tomato sauce from scratch is easy. Just follow these instructions, and you’ll soon prefer it to store-bought sauce.

1. Preheat your grill to 300 degrees F. You can use any type of grill with indirect cooking abilities.
2. Prepare your vegetables. Line two large baking sheets with tin foil. Arrange carrots, onions, tomatoes, and garlic on the foil. Drizzle them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Mix gently to coat them evenly. Spread them in a single layer on the baking sheets.
3. Smoke roast the vegetables. Roast them for 2-3 hours until they are tender and crisp on the edges.
4. Blend the ingredients. After cooling the roasted vegetables, put them in a food processor or blender with beef broth. Pulse a few times. Add fresh herbs like basil, rosemary, and oregano and pulse until you get the desired sauce consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Cool and store the sauce. Let the sauce cool completely before putting it in an airtight container or zip-top bag. You can keep it in the fridge for a few days, in the freezer for up to 3 months, or in a deep freezer for up to 6 months.

Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce

This tomato sauce is perfect for pasta. I often come home after a busy day and am glad to have this sauce frozen and ready to turn into a big pot of spaghetti. You can use this sauce immediately or defrost it quickly on busy nights when you don’t have much time to prepare dinner.

To defrost frozen tomato sauce: Boil a large pot of water and place the frozen bag of sauce into it. After a few minutes, the sauce will thaw. Remove it from the bag and put it into a saucepan. Heat the sauce thoroughly as you cook your noodles. Mix the noodles and sauce with grated Parmesan and a bit of basil. Enjoy the delicious pasta with your family.

This sauce is excellent with Italian sausage, meatball subs, or chicken Parmesan. You can use this homemade tomato sauce in any recipe that calls for pasta sauce.

Smoke Roasted Tomato Sauce

This Smoke Roasted Tomato Sauce offers a simple, tasty method to use and keep garden tomatoes. Slow roasting the tomatoes and vegetables over a wood fire enhances their sweetness and adds a slight smoky flavor.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 3 hours hrs

Total Time 3 hours hrs 20 minutes mins

Servings 4

Calories 246 kcal

Ingredients

  

• 4 pound tomatoes quartered or halved until all roughly the same size
• 2 carrot peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 medium onions cut into wedges
• 10 - 12 cloves garlic minced
• 4 Tablespoons olive oil extra virgin
• 1 Tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/2 Tablespoon fresh cracked black pepper
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup beef broth
• 1/2 cup fresh herbs basil, oregano, rosemary are all good!
• Additional salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

 

• Preheat your grill or smoker to 300 degrees F. You can use a pellet grill or any grill that allows indirect cooking and adding wood smoke. For this smoke, I used a mix of alder, cherry, and maple woods.
• Place two large baking sheets lined with tin foil. Arrange tomatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic on them. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Stir gently to coat the vegetables. Spread them in a single layer on each sheet.
• Roast the veggies on your grill for 2-3 hours until they are tender and the edges start to brown and crisp. I left mine on for 3 hours to get a darker color and more flavor, but 2 hours would have been enough.
• Take the pans off the grill and let them cool until you can handle them. Put the roasted vegetables in a food processor with beef broth. Pulse several times, then add your favorite fresh herbs. Pulse again until you get the consistency you want. Add more salt and pepper if needed.
• Cool the sauce completely, then transfer it to an airtight container. It will last a few days in the fridge or 2-3 months in the freezer. Four pounds of tomatoes yield 4-5 cups of sauce.