From scratch · Stocks and sauces
Tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes
Ripe tomatoes cooked down into plain sauce: a good use for a garden full of them.
✋ 45 min hands-on
⏱ 3 hr start to finish
🍽 About 1 quart (4 cups) of thin sauce, like canned tomato sauce. Cook it down to half for a thick sauce (about 3 cups).
Ingredients
- 5 lb roma tomatoes, or any ripe tomatoes; paste types cook down fastest
- 6 g table salt (optional)
Time
Hands-on time is when you’re busy; the rest is rising, simmering, chilling or cooling, when you can do something else.
| Step | Hands-on | Waiting |
|---|---|---|
| Core and quarter the tomatoes | 20 min | – |
| Cook and press the tomatoes | 15 min | 15 min |
| Cook down the sauce | 10 min | 1 hr 15 min |
| Cool | – | 45 min |
| In all | 45 min | 2 hr 15 min |
How long it keeps
- Refrigerator: 3 to 5 days (NDSU’s figure for tomato-based sauce).
- Freezer: leave ½ inch of space in a wide-mouth pint container (1 inch in a quart) and freeze up to 8 to 12 months for best quality (NCHFP’s figure for frozen fruits and vegetables).
Nutrition
The skins and seeds stay in the food mill, so the numbers are USDA’s for unsalted tomato purée, the closest match.
Steps
You’ll need: large wide pot, food mill, or a sieve and spoon, shallow containers.
- Wash the tomatoes, cut out the cores, and quarter them.
- Simmer them covered in a wide pot, stirring, until they collapse and turn juicy, about 15 minutes.
- Press them through a food mill or sieve to remove the skins and seeds.
- Return the purée to the pot and boil it gently, uncovered, stirring often and more as it thickens, until the volume drops by about a third (thin sauce, 1 to 1½ hours) or by half (thick sauce).
- Salt it if you like. Cool in shallow containers and refrigerate within 2 hours.
⚖️ ScalingPlan on about 5 lb of tomatoes per quart of thin sauce and 6½ lb per quart of thick sauce (NCHFP). A wider pot cooks it down faster than a tall one; the time depends on the pot, not just the amount.
🛡 SafetyThis recipe is for the refrigerator and freezer. To can tomato sauce, use NCHFP’s tested Standard Tomato Sauce, which adds acid; don’t can this one.
Sources
- Standard Tomato Sauce, National Center for Home Food Preservation. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Food Storage Guide (FN579), NDSU Extension, reviewed January 2023. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Headspace to Allow (freezing), National Center for Home Food Preservation. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- How Long Can I Store Frozen Foods, National Center for Home Food Preservation. Accessed 2026-10-25.
- National Center for Home Food Preservation (tested canning recipes), University of Georgia. Accessed 2026-10-25.