Have you got a batch of San Marzano tomatoes that you want to make into sauce? I made it my mission this summer to perfect a homemade San Marzano sauce recipe from fresh tomatoes soooo… let’s talk!
This sauce will take a few hours to come together, but it’s a simple process with few ingredients, and the results are rich, flavorful and so hearty.
We roast a couple of trays of tomatoes and then simmer the roasted tomatoes in butter, Marcella Hazan style, which is just a wonderful way to make tomatoes shine and mitigate the possibility of an over-acidic or under-flavorful batch (in either scenario, the butter will compensate!) I do have another recipe for Butter Heirloom Tomato Sauce, and you could use that recipe instead if you’d prefer to start with raw tomatoes – it ends up a little juicer and fresher tasting. But for me, the San Marzanos excel when they are roasted first and you get the deeper sweet flavor. It also means they’re easier to peel, so I don’t consider it any more effort, just a little more time.
This recipe makes enough to serve four with some pasta, and it’s a family favorite for a simple meal for us. You can add meatballs, veggies, whatever you like – or just keep it simple with some cheese on top! Also feel free to use it as a base for an Italian-inspired bean and veggie stew if you wish. It’s plenty versatile!
Want a slightly quicker dinner idea for roasted San Marzanos? Try serving them as a topping for a pasta with cream sauce – their fleshy composition makes them so extra hearty and slice-able!
Ingredients & Substitutions
- This recipe calls for 4-5 pounds (around 2kg) of fresh San Marzano tomatoes. San Marzanos are a type of plum tomato very well suited to sauce making do to being extra fleshy, low in water, and low in seeds. So you get a lot of bang for your buck with these! You can feel free to use other plum tomatoes if you wish, results will vary a little but should always be decent. Depending on where you live, you may also find a local tomato made in the style of San Marzanos – the sauce pictured used San Arrentinos from the Isle of Wight rather than legit DOP San Marzanos, though I did test it with both types.
- You want a large head of garlic for roasting, but I also recommend a couple of cloves for sauteing. For me, the lovely sweet roasted garlic flavor doesn’t replace the nice zingy fresh garlic flavor. But if you want to use one or another, that’s fine too.
- I add a little red wine vinegar – balsamic is good too.
- I recommend salted butter, and then you go a little lighter on the added salt. If you want to use unsalted butter, feel free, but salt the sauce generously.
- If you’d rather not make this with butter, instead using a few tablespoons of olive oil to simmer the tomatoes in, go for it – it will not have the same richness, but as long as your tomatoes have a great flavor it will still be good.
The Best Pan for Tomato Sauce Making
I use an enamelled cast iron 12 inch / 30cm shallow casserole dish to make this and it’s perfect. A couple of things to bear in mind:
- The wider the pan, the more surface area at the bottom, the quicker the sauce will cook down and thicken. If your pan is much smaller than mine it may take a little longer for your sauce to cook.
- For tomato sauces, you need non-reactive cookware such as enamelled cast iron or stainless steel. Avoid non-enamelled cast iron, copper or aluminium, which are reactive (meaning they will react with the acid in the tomatoes and leach metal into the sauce). More on that here.
Sauce Recipe for Other Tomato Types
Roasted San Marzano Tomato Sauce (From Fresh Tomatoes)
Ingredients
- 4.5 lbs (2 kg) fresh san marzano tomatoes, sliced in half, lengthways
- 1 head garlic, kept whole, for roasting
- 2 cloves additional garlic, crushed
- â…“ cup (75 g) salted butter
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper, to taste
- ½ bunch fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F / 200C / 180C Fan.
- First, we will get the tomatoes and garlic roasting.Arrange the tomato halves over two half sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Slice the top off of the garlic to get all of the cloves exposed, then place it facing down on the pan too (with a little olive oil underneath).
- Place in the oven for around 50-60 minutes, until the tomatoes have reduced and are browning around the edges. Remove from the oven and set aside for about 10 minutes to cool down.
- In a wide bottomed pan, melt the butter over a low heat with the two crushed garlic cloves, just until the garlic scent hits the air, then remove from the heat and set aside.
- Now, one by one, cut off the stems of the roasted tomatoes and peel off the skins (they should come away easily). Add them to the pan with the garlic butter. Squeeze the garlic head to get all of the roasted garlic out of each clove. Then make sure to pour any juices from the roasting pans into the pan too.
- Place the pan back on the heat, stir through, and use a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon to start to gently mash and break up the tomatoes.
- Let the sauce cook, with the lid cracked, over a low heat for about 1 hour. Lift the lid regularly to stir and continue to break up the tomatoes. Eventually you will have a thick but chunky sauce. If you are finding it stays too watery, just simmer with the lid completely off for a while. If you prefer a smooth sauce, feel free to puree all or some of it with a hand blender or in a jug blender (though if you're using a jug blender, you need to allow it to cool down before blending).
- Add the fresh basil and stir through.
- Serve immediately.
