Roasted Heirloom Tomato Sauce

There’s a narrow window in late summer — maybe six weeks, maybe less — when the farm stands along Route 1 and the Saturday markets are stacked with heirloom tomatoes in shapes that don’t make sense. Brandywines the size of softballs. Green Zebras that look like something you’d find in a tide pool. Cherokee Purples with color that has no business being on a tomato.

We buy too many every time. And then we make this sauce.

This is not a quick weeknight sauce. It takes about 90 minutes start to finish, most of that hands-off in the oven. What comes out is deeply caramelized, sweet without any added sugar, and complicated in a way that canned tomatoes can’t touch. We make it in bulk and freeze in half-cup portions. When February comes and the Ninja is cold, a container of this thawed in a saucepan is the closest thing to August we’ve found.

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Ingredients

• 3 lbs mixed heirloom tomatoes (a combination of large and small varieties)
• 6 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 4 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
• 1 teaspoon Baleine fine sea salt, plus more to finish
• ½ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (or ½ tsp dried)
• 8–10 large fresh basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

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Instructions

1. Prep and roast

Heat your oven to 375°F. Halve the large tomatoes through the equator, leave cherry and small varieties whole or halved. Arrange cut-side up on a rimmed baking sheet — don’t crowd them, use two pans if needed.

Tuck the unpeeled garlic cloves among the tomatoes. Drizzle everything with 3 tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt, pepper, and thyme. Don’t stir — let them sit cut-side up so the surface caramelizes rather than steams.

Roast for 60–75 minutes, until the tomatoes are deeply colored and the edges are beginning to char. The color at the edges is what you want. Pull them when they look like they’ve gone slightly too far — they haven’t.

2. Rest and peel the garlic

Let the pan cool for 10 minutes. Squeeze the garlic from its skins directly onto the pan — it should be soft and golden, almost paste-like. Discard the skins.

3. Build the sauce

Scrape everything from the pan — tomatoes, garlic, all the roasting juices — into a food mill or blender. Add the fresh basil and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil.

For a smooth sauce: blend until completely smooth, then pass through a fine mesh strainer to catch seeds and any remaining skin.

For a rougher, more rustic texture: pulse briefly in a food processor or crush with a fork — we actually prefer this for the Ninja, where the oven’s high heat finishes the cooking and a little texture holds up better than a thin purée.

4. Season and taste

Add the red wine vinegar — it brightens everything. Taste for salt. This sauce is more concentrated than canned, so a little goes a long way; we use about 3–4 tablespoons per pizza, not a full ladle.

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Notes

On tomato variety: Brandywines and Cherokee Purples give the deepest, most complex flavor. Green Zebras add brightness and acidity. We don’t recommend using only cherry tomatoes here — they’re too sweet and watery on their own, better as a topping.

On timing: The sauce holds in the fridge for five days. It freezes beautifully for up to three months — we portion into half-cup containers, which is just right for two or three pizzas. Label and date. Future-you will be grateful in February.

On yield: Three pounds of tomatoes yields roughly 1½ to 2 cups of finished sauce after roasting and straining. Heirlooms vary a lot in water content, so don’t be surprised if the yield is less from a particularly meaty variety.

On the Ninja: If you’re using the Woodfire on Pizza mode, the additional caramelization from the oven does the rest of the work. Don’t overload the pie — this sauce is concentrated, and a thin layer is exactly right.

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Related

• The 72-hour cold-ferment dough — the dough we use under this sauce
• 9 Pizza Recipes Beyond Margherita — more ideas for what to put on top