We take pizza pretty seriously here at our house. We're constantly tinkering with the crust, playing with toppings, and sampling to create the perfect pizza. A homemade sauce from homegrown tomatoes was a natural evolution for our pizza making adventures. It needed to be full of flavor with only the natural sweetness of tomatoes, none of the sugar-laden stuff most commonly found at the grocery store. It was from this pizza-perfecting desire and yearly tinkering with the homegrown tomato crop that this roasted tomato pizza sauce was born.
Why Roast?
Roasting the tomatoes first helps bring out the natural sweetness of the tomatoes as well as convince them to give up some water making the cooking down process go faster. It also seems to deepen the flavor quite a bit.
Paste or roma tomatoes are always nice for sauce because they tend to be less watery but this recipe will work with any type coming in from the garden. Cooking time will vary to make the sauce thick but doing that in the slow cooker means time to do other things beyond standing at the stove and stirring.
Pressure Can or Freeze
I recommend pressure canning this because of the pureed onions, peppers, and garlic. Those things bring down the acidity level of the tomatoes making it iffy for water bath canning without adding some lemon juice to bring up the acidity, which I believe would change the flavor too much.
A half pint jar is usually enough sauce for a 12-inch pizza and means no waste. Pint jars would also work.
If you don't want can, it will freeze beautifully in jars or other containers.
Get more tips for the great homemade pizza here.
Roasted Tomato Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 10 Pounds Ripe Tomatoes, cut large tomatoes into quarters, small ones in half
- 1 Bulb of Garlic, separated into individual cloves and peeled
- 4 Large Bell Peppers, cut into quarters, seeded and cored
- 2 Large Onions, peeled and cut into quarters
- 4 teaspoons Salt
- 1 Cup Fresh Basil Leaves, chopped
- ½ Cup Fresh Oregano, chopped
- 1 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
- Place tomatoes, garlic, onion, and bell peppers onto rimmed baking sheets. Use two sheets or shallow roasting pans. Place in preheated oven and roast 30-40 minutes or until vegetables are soft and tomato skins blister.
- Remove from oven and drain off extra water. Place vegetables in a blender or food process and purée until smooth.
- Pour the sauce, herbs, salt, and pepper, into a slow cooker. Leave the lid off and turn the cooker onto low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick almost paste like.
- Pour the hot sauce into jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace. Put on lids and rings.
- Process at 10 pounds of pressure (adjusting for elevation) for 35 minutes.
Andrea says
I can’t wait to try this. We take our homemade pizza very seriously, too! :) I have always wanted a good pizza sauce that I could make from the garden (I currently have a favorite recipe that uses a can of tomato paste, but an all-the-way-from-the-garden-scratch recipe would be awesome. Thanks for the recipe!
Helena says
About how many pints does this yield? Just trying to work out the amount of sodium per pizza, since we have to watch that so closely now. This sounds like an amazing sauce. We are currently tinkering with pizza because low-sodium pizza that tastes good is harder to make than it sounds, so this is quite timely. :)
Homespun Seasonal Living says
About 6 pints and I’ll update the post to include that info. I can’t believe I forgot.
Angie says
I am so looking forward to making this! I was recently stunned how simple it is to whip up homemade pizza for dinner and this sounds like such a delicious sauce! I agree that lemon juice would probably change the flavor far too much to justify water bath canning, but do you think citric acid would do the trick to make water bath canning safe for this sauce?
Homespun Seasonal Living says
I think citric acid would do the trick, but I would double check the times – it’s going to be longer in the water bath, even acidified, than it is a pressure canner.
Angie says
I made it with a few tweeks to the spices based on what I had on hand and it smells AMAZING! I pressure canned it in half pint jars and interestingly, half of the jars released almost all of their liquid leaving me with a few jars of pizza sauce flavored tomato paste, but I can totally work with that! Thanks again for sharing this recipe!
Homespun Seasonal Living says
I’m so glad it worked for you! Did your pressure fluctuate much? That’s a common reason for liquid loss. Just a guess.
Michelle says
Looks great, but can I freeze it instead of can it? Thanks.
Michelle says
Oops, just reread and saw the freezing advice…sometimes I get so excited about a recipe that I skip the writing and go straight to ingredients!!
Homespun Seasonal Living says
No worries, enjoy!
Kate says
What kind of bell peppers are used in this recipe?
Homespun Seasonal Living says
I just any sweet bell pepper I have growing in the garden.
Lisa Powell says
Can you used dried basil and oregano instead? If so, how much would you recommend? Thank you. Looking forward to trying this!
Homespun Seasonal Living says
Use half as much dried as fresh.
Megan says
About how long does it take to thicken in the slow cooker? I know you said it will vary, but can you give me an approximation? Thanks.
Homespun Seasonal Living says
Depending on the tomatoes and the amount you are starting with at least 4 hours but could go to 8.
Cathy says
Would this work to pressure can in 1/2 pint jars? Wuld I need to adjust the time at all with 1/2 pint versus pint?
Homespun Seasonal Living says
You can do it 1/2 pint jars but I’d leave the time the same as pint jars.
Diane says
I do not see where you add the onion. Does it roast too?
Homespun Seasonal Living says
Yes roast with the tomatoes. I’m so sorry, I missed that, I’ll go fix it.
Cheri says
What would you recommend freezing it in? Bags or plastic containers?
Homespun Seasonal Living says
Either would work based on your personal preference. Bags would make for easy squeezing later but honestly it’s not hard to spoon out of a container either. If you’re not opposed to freezing in glass jars (leave headspace and make sure they stay standing up) go that route.
Linda Ray says
I freeze it in ice cube trays then pop them out and into a food saver bag. I’ve done it in containers and jars, but those don’t work as well for me. When I make the pizza, I thaw a couple of cubes depending on what size pizza I’m making.
Because of food sensitivities, I have to limit how much sauce I use. Pizza is still very good with light sauce. For the person who was concerned about sodium, try using less sauce instead of not using sauce. That way you get full flavor, no compromise, but keep the sodium down. Still such good flavor.
Dottie says
Thank you for sharing this. If I freeze this in bags, how long will it keep in the freezer?
Homespun Seasonal Living says
I would use it up within 6 months from the freezer. It wouldn’t likely go bad as long as it stayed frozen, the quality will go down. Watch for freezer burn.
Carla says
I would rather use The water bath canning method. Can I use just 1 tsp of lemon juice? How long in the boiling water bath?
Kathie Lapcevic says
Because of the peppers, onions, and garlic I would not use the water bath method. I can’t even begin to figure how to make it safe in my home kitchen. All those added veggies bring down the level of acidity and you would need a bunch of added acidity to bring it up (think of the vinegar in salsa to make it safe for water bath canning).
Kelly says
Do you peel the tomatoes before you Puree everything or do you leave them on?
Kathie Lapcevic says
I don’t peel. I know most purists would but it seems ridiculous to me when I’m just going to puree it all and I’ve noticed a bitterness or anything from leaving the peel.
Kelly Hellbusch says
do you use the whole tomato or do you peel it before you Puree it?
Kathie Lapcevic says
I don’t peel. I just puree.
Christine Chapdelaine says
I just made this recipe,followed the recipe but I added more basil,I love basil,pressure canned and keep some for tasting on Friday pizza night
The smell was divine,thank you
Kathie Lapcevic says
Enjoy!
Racheal says
This is delicious! I made it primarily on cherry tomatoes. We are organic market gardeners, so have a lot of beautiful surplus vegetables that I like to preserve. Thanks for the recipe.
Kathie Lapcevic says
I’m so glad to know it worked well with cherry tomatoes too!