My New Favorite Pasta Sauce Was Made for Peak Tomato Season

This time of year, it’s easy to find yourself with an excess of vegetables. Backyard gardens are overflowing and farmers’ markets are packed with seasonal produce. Resist a basketful of bright Sun Golds, beautiful Beefsteaks, or juicy Brandywines? Impossible. That’s how I found myself with five pounds of beautiful, fresh, heirloom tomatoes with no real plan. 

After searching our tomato archives for some inspiration, I found this Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes recipe that looked like it would fit the bill. Little did I know that it would become my new favorite sauce. It was so good that I raved about it to my coworkers, family, and friends. I ate it three days in a row and I’m heading back to my Saturday morning farmers’ market to buy some more tomatoes and make it once again. 

All About the Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes Recipe 

This recipe is so simple, but the tomatoes shine in its simplicity. It’s rich, absolutely umami-packed, customizable, and it makes a ton of sauce. Plus, it’s as simple as can be. The hardest part is chopping! The recipe calls for fresh tomatoes, sugar, onions, olive oil, garlic, basil, and parsley—but feel free to make it your own with what you love and what you have on hand.

Start by cooking down your onions until soft, add garlic and all your fresh tomatoes, sugar, and herbs. At first, it’s going to look like these tomatoes will never become a thick, luscious sauce. But be patient, it may take awhile but it’s so, so worth it.

Tips and Adjustments For the Best Ever Pasta Sauce

As mentioned, this recipe is truly customizable. That means you can adjust it to your preferences, what you have on hand, and how much you want to make. Here are some changes I made that took this dish totally over the top.

• Use a variety of tomatoes: Variety is the spice of life—and this tomato sauce. A little of this, a little of that adds a lot of depth to this simple dish. Plus, multiple colors make for a beautiful sauce. 
• Don’t peel the tomatoes: Unless you have an aversion to the texture of tomato skins in sauce, I’d completely skip this step. It adds a lot of time to the prep, and the skins break down so much in the hour (or more) it takes to make the sauce, you won’t really notice them. 
• Don’t worry about the seeds: While the recipe doesn’t explicitly call for deseeding the tomatoes, people often aren’t keen on tomato seeds. But, if you’re not averse, please use those seeds! The umami taste you love in tomatoes? It’s magnified in the seeds compared to the flesh, according to findings reported by Chemistry World. 
• Cook the onions in oil and butter: It’s hard to beat the added richness of butter. Slowly cooking your onions in both oil and butter makes for a great mouth-feel when the sauce is ready. 
• Add a splash of vinegar: Adding vinegar to already acidic tomatoes? Yes! I added about 1.5 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar to my big pot of tomatoes and it completely transformed the dish. As tomatoes cook, they sweeten. Adding some acid back helps to balance the sweet, sour, and salty elements of the dish. 
• Use fresh garlic and herbs: While the recipe calls for dried garlic and basil, I’d recommend using fresh. When there are so few ingredients, using the real deal can go a long way in turning a good sauce into an incredible one. Plus, what’s better than fresh garlic? 
• Save your pasta water: As always, save a cup or so of your salty pasta water when you drain your noodles. Adding a splash will help the sauce cling to your noodles and get nice and glossy.
• Use it in a variety of ways: While pasta is the most common way to use this sauce, it’s far from the only. I used leftovers in a variety of ways: on top of sourdough with some fresh burrata and balsamic glaze, stirred into cheesy risotto, and as a topping to grilled chicken breasts. The possibilities are endless! 

I hope you become just as passionate about this recipe as I am. If you make a big batch, make sure to save some in the freezer to enjoy in the coming months when we don’t have summer tomatoes at our disposal.

Get the recipe: Spaghetti Sauce with Fresh Tomatoes