Cherry Tomato Sauce: Easy One Pan Recipe In 30 Minutes

Jump to Recipe

Cherry tomato sauce is a sauce that’s quick to make and delicious to eat. With natural sugars this recipe makes a jam-like sauce in 30 minutes.

For those with a garden this cherry tomato sauce will be perfect for your extra tomatoes. For those that just enjoy a fresh sauce this is perfect for you as well.

Cherry tomatoes are the sweeter tomato. Roma isn’t very sweet but grape tomatoes do have a slight sweetness to them. To add, grape tomatoes would work great in this sauce recipe as well.

The sugars begin to caramelize making a jam-like sauce that you can eat straight from the pan. I tossed in some balsamic vinegar to up the sweetness and acidity and fresh basil for a classic herb with tomatoes. Perfect for making a cherry tomato pasta sauce.

Unlike pan roasted tomatoes you can make this in one pot and be done with it. I’ll show you how, keep reading.

How To Make Cherry Tomato Sauce

A few ingredients you need to start

• Cherry tomatoes
• Garlic
• Balsamic vinegar
• Fresh basil
• Salt & black pepper
• Oil for cooking

Few tips before starting to help avoid mistakes

• Grape tomatoes can be used in this recipe as well. But, I would not recommend roma tomatoes at all. Even with grape tomatoes the texture can be slightly different because there are less sugars there. It’ll still taste great of course.
• Watch the heat when cooking these. You want the heat around medium high to medium. You do not want to burn parts of the tomatoes before the rest of the sugars are broken down. When cooking you will notice the tomatoes starting to stick to the pan after a while. This is where you really want to watch the heat because they are almost done.

Making a cherry tomato sauce

1. To start, take about 10 minutes to slice all the cherry tomatoes in half. This will speed up the cooking process.
2. In a sauce pan on pot on medium high heat add a little oil for cooking. About 2-3 tablespoons should be perfect. Add the halved cherry tomatoes into the pan.
3. They will sizzle which is perfect. Season with salt and black pepper. Do not add too much because you can add more later. You can always add more but not take it out if you over do it.
4. Cook the tomatoes, continue to stir them. There will come a point where they start to stick to the bottom of the pan more, add in the garlic now. Once garlic is fragrant you can turn off the heat.
5. Now, add in the balsamic vinegar. I used an emulsion blender because I like to leave a few chunky pieces but you can use a standard blender as well. After you blend add in the chopped basil, not before.
6. Lastly, taste for seasoning and its perfect to store for later or use it for a cherry tomato pasta sauce.

Storing the sauce for later or freezing it

I suggest storing this cherry tomato sauce in an airtight container. It’ll last about 4 days in the refrigerator. For freezing, the sauce should freeze fine but there will be some texture change after thawing.

Reheating is great because you can just toss it in a pan until comes up to temp. Or, if you’re serving it with your favorite pasta be sure to toss that in as well.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How do you quickly chop cherry tomatoes?

This is the part that takes the longest in the recipe. Honestly, I have no secret other than it just takes time. But, here is a good video on YouTube with some tricks.

Do I need to peel cherry tomatoes?

No and you do not need to core them either. Remove the stem if it’s there but other than that slice them straight down the middle for this recipe.

What to serve with cherry tomato sauce?

• Pasta is perfect (spaghetti, penne, fettuccine)
• Spicy Sausage Pasta
• Air Fryer Garlic Bread
• Meatless Baked Ziti (switch the sauce out)
• Baked Pork Chop

Follow Sugarless Crystals on Pinterest & Instagram for all my recipes!