Slow Cooker Fresh Tomato Sauce
This is the easiest (and laziest) way to preserve summer tomatoes. And it’s also soooooo delicious! This Slow Cooker Fresh Tomato Sauce should inspire you to put up some end of summer tomatoes. You’ll thank me this winter!
I was gifted some fresh garden tomatoes from not only one but two friends a few weeks ago. I’d also overbought at the farmers market so needless to say I had a TON of tomatoes on my counter. I knew we wouldn’t get through all of them before they went bad and I just didn’t have it in me to can them. This Slow Cooker Fresh Tomato Sauce was the perfect solution. It’s a very forgiving recipe, you don’t have to babysit a pot on the stove, and the end result is amaze-balls.
These first few weeks of school have kicked. my. ass. I’m usually over the moon when the kids go back to school and find that I’m super productive tackling all the projects that didn’t get done over summer break. But this year? I haven’t had the energy to do anything. I’m doing the bare minimum at work and for whatever reason, I find the days fly by and I’m not really getting anything done. I usually do a ton of canning this time of year but I haven’t put up a darn thing this year.
I’m kind of (and by kind of, I mean totally) doing the bare minimum at life and taking all the shortcuts I can. Survival mode- mountain mama stye- at it’s finest. Hence the Slow Cooker Tomato Sauce. It’s the cheater version of canning and I’m pretty thrilled with the results. In fact, I’m not sure I’ll go back to the tedious process of putting up tomatoes anytime soon. Definitely not this year anyway.
This recipe is one that requires time but it doesn’t require any real work. You cook the sauce twice- hence the time- but otherwise it’s a little bit of prep and nothing else. You cook the sauce twice- before and after pureeing. It’s the perfect lazy saturday recipe. Or a recipe to do when you’re home anyway doing other house stuff because you don’t have to babysit it! You could easily split the cooking time between two days if that’s easier for you.
The recipe makes exactly 3 quarts of sauce. The’ll last in the fridge for a few weeks otherwise the sauce freezes beautifully. I froze half the sauce and know will come in handy this winter when I need a quick dinner asap. The sauce as is is wonderful over pasta. It would also be awesome in a slow cooker with a pot roast. It would make a wonderful base to a thick stew or chili and it’s easily doctored if you want to make a tomato soup out of it. Soooooooo versatile!
photos by Kellie Hatcher/ recipe by Mountain MamaCooks
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An easy way to make tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes and the slow cooker!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 medium onions, diced (about 2 heaping cups)
- 8 lb tomatoes, washed, cored, and quartered (about 16 cups)
- 6 oz tomato paste
- 1/4 cup, packed fresh basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- kosher salt to taste
Instructions
- In a large saute pan, heat olive oil over medium-low heat. Add onion and sauté about 10 minutes, stirring often, until onion is soft and translucent. Add minced garlic and cook for 1 minute more. Remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, clean, core, and quarter the tomatoes. I live the skins on- the natural pectin in the skin will help thicken the sauce. I don’t worry about removing seeds as they don’t bother me after I puree the sauce but feel free to remove if you’d like!
- Add the quartered tomatoes to the base of the slow cooker. Add the sautéed onions and garlic, tomato paste, fresh basil, sugar, and Italian seasoning.
- Cover and cook on low for 4 hours. After 4 hours, the tomatoes will be falling part and lots of juice will have accumulated. In batches, transfer tomato mixture to a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. Return pureed tomatoes (now sauce!) back to the slow cooker and cover. Cook again on low for 3-4 hours until sauce has reduced a bit and the flavors are concentrated. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Store tomato sauce in glass jars or freeze in ziplock or other freezer friendly container. The sauce will keep in the fridge for a few weeks. This is amazing on it’s own or it’s a great starter for a soup. I used the sauce over pasta, as a topping on stuffed zucchini and I finished off the last bit in some turkey chili. It’s super versatile!
18 Comments
Super easy and my family loves the taste!
I have never made homemade sauce I had a bunch of tomatoes from my garden it turned out so good very happy! Thank you
I’m so glad you liked it! It’s such a great way to use up an abundance of fresh tomatoes!
Can you can this sauce
No but it freezes really well!
This ridiculous pile of tomatoes has got to go! Going to try making this sauce this weekend. I’ve never made tomato sauce and this sounds like a perfect recipe for my first attempt! Stay tuned….
I have made this recipe as I had lots of fresh plum cherry tomatoes to use up. The recipe was say to follow and tasted great! Will definitely make this again.
Why can’t you can this sauce? I don’t see why not?
To safely can, you need to have the right balance of acidity. This is very freezer friendly!
Hi Kelley- Do you think I could save a step and purée tomatoes before even cooking?? I guess I like to take more shortcuts than you. Lol
Go for it!
Our sauce is still pretty thin. Suggestions for thickening? Continue slow cooking to reduce?
You can cook a little longer in the slow cooker to try and reduce or you can do it on the stove top at a low simmer.
I washed and quartered my whole tomatoes and threw them in the crockpot with the skins on. I cooked them on low for eight hours and then put everything in the food mill to remove the skins and seeds. I returned the tomato juice back to the crockpot, added all the spices, onions and a couple cans of tomato paste. I cooked another 8 to 10 hours on high without the cover on. My sauce thickened perfectly and tastes great.
This is an awesome recipe! Thank you so much, Kelley, for posting it.
I used a mixture of heirloom tomatoes, romas, cherry tomatoes, and Big Boys, that my dad gave me this year. (He’s the tomato growing king) 🙂
For my personal taste, I will reduce the sugar next time, but the other seasoning blends really brought out the flavor in the sauce.
I’m not Italian and have never made sauce from scratch before. With this recipe, I feel like a sauce expert now. LOL
We used an assortment of tomatoes from our garden, including cherry tomatoes and we were stunned at how tasty this sauce turned out. We had always used Roma tomatoes in the past but will always now use Early Girl; Brandywine; Cherry; Thessaloniki and any other garden tomatoes we grow.
Superb recipe, thank you.
Can this be cooked on high for 2 hours and then another 2 hours after pureeing? I’m in a bit of a time constraint? It’s in my crockpot on first 4 hours.
The end result came out great, although I wouldn’t call it “sauce”. The look, flavor and consistency came out more like a tomato basil soup. But this could be attributed to type of tomatoes used. Mine were all garden fresh and not the smaller sauce tomatoes. Either way, it tasted delish and I would totally make this again. If I wanted more of a marinara, I would simmer on the stove without a lid to reduce/thicken, more and maybe even add a splash of red wine and a bayleaf. Makes a great tomato basil soup, just add some cream at the end and a sprinkle of cheese!