Homemade Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
2 servings
- Tomatoes 4–6
- Onion 1
- Garlic 2 cloves
- Herbs (parsley, basil) 1 sprig each
- Olive oil 3 tbsp
- Sugar 1 tsp, to taste (5 g)
- Salt, paprika, spices to taste
- Hot pepper optional
Step-by-step recipe
Preparing the tomatoes
For tomato sauce, the tomatoes must be perfectly fresh and fully ripe. No brownish or greenish ones, none with white streaks. Only ripe ones. And no tomato paste either.
Many recipes suggest making tomato sauce from whole tomatoes and then pushing it through a sieve to separate out the bits of skin and seeds. It’s all messy, fiddly and slow. There’s a much simpler and quicker way.
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water and peel them.
Cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Cut away any greenish parts with a knife as well.
Pick all the leaves off the dill, parsley and basil. Peel the garlic and onion.
Blending into a purée
Put the herbs, onion, garlic and hot pepper (optional) into a blender or food processor. Add the peeled tomatoes to the same blender.
Turn on the blender and blend everything until smooth.
Simmering the sauce
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan or sauté pan and pour in the tomato purée.
Bring to a boil, salt and add sugar. The amount of sugar is entirely to taste. I think 1 tsp is just right.
Simmer the tomato sauce, covered, over the lowest heat. It takes a long time. The sauce should become thick, fragrant and, most importantly, smooth.
Tomato sauce usually cooks for hours. But the main rule is: no water, only what the tomatoes release.
Taste the sauce now and then and adjust the seasoning: salt, pepper, sugar. And be sure to stir.
As soon as the tomato sauce is the way you want it, it’s done. Mine simmered, covered, for about 1.5 hours.
Try making this sauce and you’ll forget about store-bought ketchup for good. In tomato season you can make a batch, seal it in jars and enjoy it all year.
The perfect tomato sauce for pizza, pasta, meat or fish, or simply spread on bread. Tomato sauce can easily stand in for tomato paste!
Calories and macros
270 kcal
Serving ≈ 380 g
- Protein4 g5% of kcal
- Fat21 g72% of kcal
- Carbs15 g23% of kcal
100 g72 kcalProtein 0.9 gFat 5.6 gCarbs 4.1 g
Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.
How did you like this recipe?
To Get It Right
Which tomatoes are best
Ripe, meaty tomatoes release less juice, so the sauce cooks faster. With juicy, watery tomatoes it will take longer to simmer.
Without a blender
You can put the peeled tomatoes, onion and garlic through a meat grinder and finely chop the herbs with a knife. The sauce will be a little less smooth, but it breaks down during the long simmer.
Heat and spices
Hot pepper is optional: with it the sauce is great with meat and grilled kebabs, without it with pasta. Add salt, sugar and paprika a little at a time and taste: the tomatoes should stay the main flavor.
Have your own trick for this recipe?
Questions and answers
How do you make tomato sauce thicker?
Simmer it longer and don’t add water: the sauce thickens as the tomato juice evaporates. To speed things up, you can simmer it uncovered for the last 15–20 minutes, stirring more often.
How do you make tomato sauce for winter?
To store the sauce at room temperature, it needs to be acidified and sterilized. It’s best to leave out the onion, garlic and herbs in this case — you can add them when serving. Add lemon juice to the hot sauce (1 tbsp per half-liter jar), fill sterilized jars, seal them and sterilize the jars in boiling water for 35–40 minutes.
How long does tomato sauce keep in the fridge?
Up to 5 days in a clean, covered jar. Use a clean, dry spoon to take it out.
Can you freeze tomato sauce?
Yes. Portion the cooled sauce into containers or ice cube trays — it keeps in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Can you use tomato sauce instead of tomato paste?
Yes, tomato sauce can easily stand in for tomato paste. The sauce is thinner than paste, so you need more of it — about 3 tbsp of sauce for 1 tbsp of paste (17 g).