Delicious homemade tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes. It is rich, tangy, and full of flavor from many herbs and spices, homemade chicken broth, and sauteed onions and garlic.
Making tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes can be a little frustrating. Fresh tomato sauce can be a little watery and just not anything like the canned or jarred sauces. But you can make a fresh tomato sauce at home from scratch that is delicious served over pasta, as pizza sauce, or used in soups or stews.
This recipe uses a mix of fresh tomatoes and a can of pureed tomato sauce, which produces a nice and flavorful tomato sauce. If you have a garden overflowing with summer tomatoes or just want to make a delicious homemade tomato sauce this is the recipe for you!
You can serve this tomato sauce with freshly torn basil leaves as a soup, or with sauteed mushrooms, over pasta and meatballs, as a pizza sauce, and more.
Recipe Ingredients for Tomato Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes
Onions – Onions, onions, onions. I love onions and this sauce has a lot of sauteed onions. You can use either chopped yellow onions or a mix of yellow and red onions. Both are great and make for a great sauce.
- Sauteed onions taste the best when you cook them until they are very soft and just starting to brown. That caramelized flavor is great in almost any dish!
Fresh tomatoes – You might have a summer garden overflowing with ripe tomatoes right about now, and this recipe is a great way to use them up! You can use 4 – 5 large fresh tomatoes in this recipe yielding about 4 cups of tomato sauce.
- This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled to use up even more tomatoes! Just store the extra tomato sauce in the freezer until you are ready to use it.
Tomato sauce – This recipe uses a mix of fresh tomatoes and a canned pureed tomato sauce. I find the mix to produce a nice red sauce.
- You can use exclusively fresh tomatoes but the sauce won’t be as thick.
Chicken broth – Homemade from scratch chicken broth makes this homemade tomato sauce so delicious! You could also use a veggie broth. I wouldn’t recommend using water in place of the broth because the chicken or veggie broth adds so much flavor to the homemade sauce.
- You can freeze your homemade chicken broth in ice cube trays then store the broth ice cubes in freezer gallon baggies for easy use.
Seasonings – The seasonings used in this recipe is what makes this sauce the best. I used many classic tomato sauce seasonings – dried thyme, dried oregano, lots of minced garlic, and bay leaves. I also used all-purpose seasoning. All-purpose seasoning just makes everything taste absolutely amazing!
Tips and serving suggestions
- You can serve this tomato sauce with freshly torn basil leaves, with sauteed mushrooms, over pasta and meatballs, over fresh ravioli, as a pizza sauce and more.
- I love the chunks of tomatoes and onions but you could also puree the sauce with an immersion blender or regular blender, once the sauce has cooled for a smooth tomato sauce. Whichever way you choose to serve this sauce I hope you try this recipe out soon!
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How To Make Tomato Sauce At Home
Equipment
- Medium-size sauce pan
Ingredients
- 4 – 6 tablespoons olive oil or ghee
- 1 yellow onion large, minced, or ½ yellow onion and ½ red onion
- ¾ teaspoon salt
- ¾ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¾ teaspoon dried oregano
- ¼ teaspoon ground paprika
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon all-purpose seasoning
- 3 – 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1(15) ounce can of tomato sauce
- 3 cups chopped tomatoes 3 – 4 chopped tomatoes
- 1 ½ cup chicken broth
- 2 – 3 bay leaves
Instructions
- Heat ghee or vegetable oil in a medium-sized pot on medium/ high heat. Add in the chopped onions. Cook the onions until they are soft and are starting to turn brown, 10 – 12 minutes.
- Then add in the minced garlic and spices – salt, dried thyme, dried oregano, ground paprika, cayenne pepper, and all-purpose seasoning. Mix the spices, garlic, and onions together, cook for 30 seconds to 1 minute so that the spices and garlic become fragrant.
- Add in the can of tomato sauce. Cook the tomato sauce covered for 5 minutes, to cook off the bitter can tomato taste. Then add in the chopped tomatoes, chicken broth, and bay leaves. Bring the tomato sauce up to a boil, then turn the heat down to a simmer.
- Cover the tomato sauce and simmer it for 30 minutes – 1 hour.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve over pasta or use in soups and stews. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
All nutrition information is automatically generated and should be only used as a rough estimate. This recipe card may contain affiliate links.
