Roasted tomato sauce is both gorgeous and satisfying. Roasted caramelized tomatoes and garlic in olive oil thyme. This is a fabulously easy recipe that is perfect year-round for your dinner rotation. The oven does most of the work for you. All you need to do is assemble a few ingredients, which takes all about 5 minutes, then pop them in the oven to slowly roast.
I’m so excited to share with you this pasta dish. It’s a recipe my friend Craig has been telling me about for a long time. Luckily for me, when he and his beautiful wife Kelley were staying at our house for the weekend, we decided to make this for dinner.
The tomatoes and garlic are roasted for a long time at a low temperature in olive oil with fresh thyme. This concentrates the flavors of the tomatoes and garlic and caramelizes the natural sugars in them making them even yummier. The mixture is enhanced with a bit of brown sugar and balsamic vinegar, which plays up the sweetness of the caramelized tomatoes and garlic.
Then, after all the ingredients are roasted to perfection, it’s all tossed with cooked and well-drained pasta.
If you love really delicious pasta recipes, I hope you’ll try my creamy Tuscan sausage pasta, creamy lemon chicken pasta, and Cajun chicken alfredo next!
Roasted Tomato Sauce Ingredients
- Cherry Tomatoes: You can use cherry or grape tomatoes. All red or a pretty mix of colors.
- Garlic: Use fresh garlic, not the stuff that comes already chopped in a jar.
- Olive Oil: I like EVOO.
- Balsamic Vinegar: Adds the necessary acidity to the sauce with some added sweetness.
- Fresh Thyme: I love how the oil becomes infused with the fresh thyme flavor. If you live in an area where you can grow this year-round, do it! English thyme is one of the easiest herbs I grow!
- Brown Sugar: Don’t skip this. It absolutely makes the sauce!
- Salt + Black Pepper: Finished the seasoning.
- Pasta: We chose to serve the sauce with spaghetti, but really it would be delicious with most pasta shapes. Be sure to use good, high-quality pasta like Barilla.
- Parsley: Adds a nice touch of herbaceous freshness and a pop of color.
Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? This pasta with roasted tomatoes and garlic will last 3-5 days in the fridge.
- Can You Freeze This? This slow roasted tomato sauce is best made fresh.
- Food Safety: If you’d like more info on food safety check out this link.
Roasted Tomato Sauce Serving Recommendations
This pasta with roasted cherry tomatoes is a great meal-in-one recipe! If you want to round out the meal, I like a simple green salad dressed with my balsamic vinaigrette or my crazy delicious Mediterranean salad.
In our home, a meal isn’t complete without a side of bread! I love my copycat Olive Garden bread sticks, truly amazing garlic bread, or yummy garlic and herb Parker house rolls.
Top everything with my tiramisu, strawberry tiramisu, or little, incredibly amazing, Italian Christmas cookies, Italian wedding cookies, or ricotta cookies!
More Pasta Favorites
- Chicken Spaghetti Bake
- Spaghetti Recipe With Ground Beef
- TikTok Spaghetti
- Cavatappi With creamy tomato sauce
- Million Dollar Spaghetti
- Chicken Riggies
- Chicken Alfredo
- Chicken Spaghetti With Rotel
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Roasted Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 pound 6 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, chopped
- 2 teaspoons brown sugar, packed
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 16 ounces dried spaghetti
- 2-3 tablespoons Italian parsley, chopped, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325°F (163°C).
- In a nonreactive 9x13-inch baking dish, add the olive oil 91/2 cup), balsamic vinegar (2 tablespoons), thyme (1 tablespoon), brown sugar (2 teaspoons), salt (1 teaspoon), and black pepper (1/2 teaspoon) and whisk to combine.
- Add the tomatoes (1 pound 6 ounces) and garlic (3) and toss to coat well.
- Bake in preheated oven until tomatoes are softened and caramelized about 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, cook spaghetti (16 ounces) according to package instructions. Drain well. Pour the drained pasta back into the completely dry pot, it was cooked in. Pour the baked tomatoes and all the rest of the ingredients from the baking pan over the pasta and toss well. Serve.
Fans Also Made:
My husband is a picky eater, he looooved it! This recipe is a keeper!
Woohoo! Celebration! Thanks so much, Elaine 🙂
CAN YOU USE OTHER TYPES OF TOMATOES IF CHERRY IS NOT AVAILABLE, PLEASE REPLAY ASAP IF POSSIBLE TO MY EMAIL ADDRESS AND THANK YOU FOR YUMMY RECIPES
Hi Dorothy. This recipe is designed to capitalize on the sweetness and the skins of the cherry tomatoes. The only other tomato I would suggest would be grape tomatoes. Perhaps if you can not find either, you could try a plum tomato, like a Roma and quarter it then proceed with the recipe. I hope that helps!
Also, I sent you an email to make sure you get the info you need! <3