This easy recipe for Crock-Pot Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce features fresh seasonal cherry tomatoes and just a few simple ingredients for an amazing sauce!
Crock-Pot Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce
Summer is just not summer without fresh tomatoes. I personally love cherry tomatoes, just pop them in your mouth and eat, or cut them in half and sprinkle with salt & pepper and nosh away! I am lucky if I get a few since my kids all like to pick them fresh off the vine and eat them before I can get some.
Heck, I even caught one of the dogs raiding my tomato plants last year!
This recipe for roasted cherry tomato sauce made in the slow cooker is amazing and could not be simpler.
The ingredient list is simple, cherry tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, fresh basil and if you feel your sauce needs it, a pinch of sugar.
But first the tomatoes…
You can use home grown cherry tomatoes or ones you pick up at the farmers market or grocery store. They can be red, yellow, orange. Whatever you have. Just make sure they are ripe and juicy!
Then you toss in a handful of fresh basil, some garlic, a pinch of sugar, a couple grinds of pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.
Let it simmer away and at the end you have this amazing fresh sauce that is of course perfect tossed over pasta.
Serve it over pasta…any kind of pasta, spaghetti, rigatoni, ravioli…
I went with the ravioli. Yum.
As you can see this is a rather chunky sauce, if you prefer though you can give the final sauce a whirl in the blender for a smoother sauce.
Crock-Pot Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 pints cherry tomatoes
- 4 cloves Garlic
- 10 leaves Fresh Basil (divided)
- 4 tablespoons Olive Oil
- Freshly Ground Black Pepper (to taste)
- 1 pinch Sugar (or drizzle of honey, optional)
Instructions
- Wash tomatoes and cut each one in half and place in the bottom of a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker.
- Peel and finely mince garlic and add to tomatoes.
- Ciffonade the basil (see video) and add half of the fresh basil to the crock-pot and reserve the remaining basil for the end.
- Toss the tomatoes, garlic and basil with the olive oil and add a pinch of sugar (or honey) and some freshly ground black pepper.
- Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours or on HIGH for 3 hours.
- Tomatoes should be loose and saucy when done.
- Add the remaining fresh basil and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
And for video on how to chiffonade basil…
This looks amazing! I love chunks of tomato in my sauce, this is calling my name!
I didn’t have high hopes after my tomatoes were done in the crockpot. They were looking like red prunes… But 20 seconds in the blender and it looks and smells great. I only had dried herbs but it still turned out good. Thanks for this recipe!
LOL, yep the tomatoes do end up looking sort of shriveled and wrinkly like plums when they are done. But they are oh so good!
Can this be frozen?
Yes it can!
Can the sauce be canned and processed?
I am not an expert canner so I hesitate to give advice on proper canning techniques and times. I just would hate to give advice here on the blog that might make someone sick. My canning expertise so far has only been with jams, jellies and fruit butters. This does however freeze just fine!
you don’t add any salt?
You can add salt if you want to Jennifer. But I didn’t feel it was necessary.
Sounds delicious! Do you think you could can this recipe then? How long to boil in a water bath?
Hi Maureen, I have never canned this recipe. I usually just put it in freezer containers and freeze. Because this recipe has olive oil in it I am pretty sure that it would not work for water bath canning. But you may be able to pressure can it. I have yet to delve into pressure canning so I cannot offer any advice there.
It does freeze beautifully though.
I am making this now and OMG the house smells AMAZING!! I am thinking, instead of sauce, I am going to leave it really chunky and use it over toasted french bread and cheese like a tomato basil jam. I am definitely saving this recipe to use again, and again!
Thanks Koreena! I love this recipe over toasted bread. Kind of like a brushetta…the addition of cheese would be amazing! Let me know how it turned out for you!
I’m on my second round of this recipe! It’s so nice to have a great and simple recipe to use up our cherry tomatoes and fresh basil! – them you! Plus, I use our home grown garlic as well! I use a little extra garlic and basil, then some Himalayan salt to taste perfects it before serving!
I mean, “thank you”!
You’re welcome!
Can you use grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes?
While I have not tested this recipe using grape tomatoes I see no reason why that would not work in this recipe. If you give it a try be sure to come back and let me know how it turned out for you Susan!
Only difference between cherry and grape tomatoes is the shape. LOL
Now that I am growing some of both varieties in my garden this year I would have to agree with you Tibbs!
I have a garden full of both red cherry tomatoes and yellow grape tomatoes. Would I be able to use both I this recipe, or would that effect the taste too much?
That should be fine! Enjoy!
Sounds delicious!
Could I use frozen cherry tomatoes for this? If so, should I thaw them 1st or just toss in frozen?
Hi Annie, while we have not tested this recipe using frozen cherry tomatoes I think it should work. It may end up a little more watery due to the water release from frozen fruits and veggies. I would go ahead and try the recipe using the cherry tomatoes still frozen and allow for some extra cooking time to not only compensate for the frozen tomatoes but to also allow some of the extra liquid to cook off.
I had an overabundance of cherry tomatoes and was excited to try this. I faithfully saved them until I had a gallon and followed the recipe exactly. The sauce smelled wonderful. pureed to a lovely texture, but it tasted so incredibly bitter that it was inedible and I felt so defeated that I wasted all those tomatoes.
Any ideas?
I am sorry this recipe did not come out as expected for you Leslie. I have found adding a little sugar or honey when cooking tomato sauces can offset the bitterness. Maybe try adding a teaspoon of sweetener, let it cook a little while, taste and adjust as needed.