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A white bowl filled with tomato sauce, beside cherry tomatoes, basil, garlic and a mini bowl of olive oil.

5 Ingredient Homemade Fresh Tomato Sauce

Such an amazing yet easy tomato sauce to make, and great for so many different dishes. Made with fresh tomatoes.
Course Sauce
Cuisine Italian Inspired
Keyword easy tomato sauce, homemade tomato sauce, Tomato sauce from scratch
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 50 minutes
Servings 2 cups
Calories 473 kcal
Author Nicolas

Ingredients

  • 100 g of jarred roasted red peppers
  • 75 ml of water
  • 1 kg of roma tomatoes
  • 3 garlic cloves peeled and sliced
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 15 g of basil leaves shredded
  • Salt, pepper and sugar for seasoning

Other:

  • At least a handful if ice

Instructions

  1. Put the red peppers and water in a blender, and blend until you have a smooth red watery mixture. Then set aside.

  2. Fill a medium sized pot with water and then bring that water to a rolling boil.

  3. As the water comes to a boil, use a small knife to make a few incisions in each tomato. Then, fill a large bowl with water and add your ice.

  4. Add the tomatoes to the boiling water, and after about 30 seconds, use a large spoon (or a slotted spoon) to transfer the tomatoes in the bowl filled with ice-cold water.

  5. Once the tomatoes have cooled, peel off the skin of each tomato and discard it.

  6. Next, cut the tomatoes into quarters and then use your clean hands or a spoon to get rid of the seeds and the excess moisture. Leaving you with the flesh of the tomato.

  7. Now finely dice the tomato flesh, which will leave you with a tomato concasse.

  8. Pre-heat the pot over medium flame for about 1 minute, and then add your olive oil. From there, add your garlic and fry for about 1 minute until it starts to colour.

  9. Add the tomato concasse (the diced tomato) and then add a pinch of salt to help break down the tomatoes. Cover the tomatoes with a lid and cook for 15 minutes stirring occasionally.

  10. Take the lid off, then add your red pepper blend, stir it through and continue simmering the sauce for another 15 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally.

  11. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper. Then season with a pinch of sugar to balance out the acidity. And finally, finish the sauce with your shredded basil.

  12. Store away into containers or bottles, use it for pastas, pizzas or anything else that you believe this sauce will be suitable for.

Recipe Notes

  • When steeping the tomatoes in boiling water to peel them, make sure you steep them for 30 seconds at the most. We just want to peel them, not cook them at this point.
  • After peeling the tomatoes, quarter them and scoop and the core and the seeds so that you're only left with the flesh. The tomato flesh is what will create a great body for a sauce.
  • If you don't have a blender to blend the peppers, you can use a hand blender instead but be careful not to make a mess.
  • If the sauce needs to be skimmed, which means, using a spoon to skim of any excess fat or foam floating at the surface of the sauce. Then do so.
  • Stir the sauce every few minutes, just to ensure it doesn't catch and burn at the bottom.
  • Tomato sauce can be quite acidic at times, so when seasoning the sauce to taste, see if you need to add a pinch of sugar too. Just to balance out that acidity.
  • I love using roma tomatoes instead of salad tomatoes. Here is a list of tomato varieties which are great for sauces: Best Tomato For Sauces
  • Tomato sauce is great for making pizzas, pastas, for braising ingredients and for making stews.
  • If you want to “cheat”, you can skip using fresh tomatoes, and just use tinned plum or crushed tomatoes. This prevents you from having to peel and prep the fresh tomatoes.
  • If you want to freeze this tomato sauce, then check out this Homemade Turkey Gravy recipe post to see how I like to effectively freeze sauces for later use.
Nutrition Facts
5 Ingredient Homemade Fresh Tomato Sauce
Amount Per Serving
Calories 473 Calories from Fat 272
% Daily Value*
Fat 30.2g46%
Saturated Fat 4.3g27%
Sodium 231mg10%
Potassium 2450mg70%
Carbohydrates 45.9g15%
Fiber 12.4g52%
Sugar 30g33%
Protein 9.8g20%
Calcium 143mg14%
Iron 3mg17%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.