Oven or Air Fryer Easy Pasta Sauce

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I love, love, love this really easy pasta sauce, that I can whip up in my Air Fryer or Oven that comes together in under 25 minutes.

It is vibrant, with a deep roasted flavor and easy to whip up, with a few affordable ingredients and minimal prep, and it is the little black dress of pasta sauces. We all need to have one of these Easy Tomato Sauce recipes at hand.

We all love fun and sometimes complex recipes, but there are days when we just need really simple, make in our sleep, that the whole family will love recipes, that we can pull out during hectic days.

Related Link : 5 Mins Lemon Butter Sauce.

Well, this Oven or Air Fryer Tomato Sauce fits the bill. It is a whole load of easy and perfect for quick weeknight dinners and impromptu lunches. But also flavorful and fancy enough that you can pull it out for guests. It is also oil-free which makes it a big plus in my book.

Juicy Fresh tomatoes are the main ingredient of this tomato sauce. So, make sure you get the sweetest, ripest tomatoes you can find.  And for the tomato flavor to shine through I have kept the rest of the ingredients very simple. But of course, you can add more flavors to your taste.

And roasting the tomatoes, before blending them, just makes this sauce go from great, to finger licking awesome.

 So let’s get cooking……

How To Make Easy Pasta Sauce In The Air Fryer

1. Preheat your Air Fryer to 350F / 180C and get your Air Fryer cake barrel pan ready.
2. Place tomatoes on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to quarter the (If large) or halve them (if small).
3. Add tomatoes to a mixing bowl and stir in the ground allspice (pimento), dried oregano and salt.
4. Transfer the tomatoes to the cake barrel pan and place in the preheated Air Fryer.
5. Cook for 18 minutes stirring them a couple of times during roasting.
6. About 3 minutes before cook time ends, add in finely chopped green onions and balsamic vinegar and stir.

7. When done, remove the cake barrel, from the Air Fryer, let cool and blend the sauce to your desired chunkiness/smoothness using an immersion blender. Or just mash with a fork.

How To Make Easy Pasta Sauce In The Oven

Chef’s tip: the oven version will need a little oil.

1. Preheat the oven to 400F (200C)
2. Place tomatoes on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to quarter the (if large) or halve them (if small).
3. Add tomatoes to a mixing bowl and stir in the ground allspice (pimento), dried oregano and salt.
4. Transfer the tomatoes small lightly skillet and place in the preheated oven.
5. Cook for 30 minutes stirring them a couple of times during roasting.
6. About 10 minutes before cook time ends, add in finely chopped green onions and maple syrup and stir.
7. When done, remove from the oven, let cool and blend the sauce to your desired chunkiness/smoothness using an immersion blender. Or just mash with a fork.

Roasted Tomato Recipe Tips

• To make the best Air Fryer Tomato Sauce, make sure to blend to your desired consistency. If you like more of a chunky sauce, blend your ingredients a little less.
• You want the tomatoes to cook at the same rate, so make sure that you cut them to the same size.
• Add a pinch of chili for a little bit of heat and oomph.

Sweetening Your Easy Homemade Pasta Sauce

I like my Homemade Pasta sauce nice and sharp so I tend not to add any sweeteners when cooking for just myself. However, when cooking for the kids and guests who like a sweeter pasta sauce, I would start about ½-1 teaspoon of sugar or maple syrup. Try it both ways and see what you prefer.

Easy Pasta Sauce Recipe Variations

What is great is that this marinara recipe is highly adaptable.  It is as simple as mixing and matching spices or herbs to your taste.

Other ingredients you can add into this easy pasta sauce include:

• Smoked paprika
• Ground cumin
• White pepper
• Fresh basil
• Fresh thyme
• Red pepper flakes
• Cilantro
• Ground cinnamon
• Garlic pureé

Plus depending on your diet, you can add in cheesy treats like grated Parmesan. Basically, your sauce, your way.

Storing and Freezing

This will last in the fridge for up to 5 days. If you want to keep it for any longer then this is super freezer-friendly, which means it is ideally suited for meal prep. Simply whip up a batch (or even triple) and then store in the freezer until you’re ready to use.

Just follow these easy steps for freezing:

• Let the sauce cool down and blend or mash, then transfer into these very handy Ziploc bags.
• Squeeze out all the extra air and seal the bags.
• Label the bags and then lay them flat in the freezer.
• Store in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Steps for thawing:

• Remove from the freezer the night before needed and let it thaw in the fridge.
• For a faster thaw, place in your microwave then thaw following the microwave’s instructions.

What to Serve This Sauce Over or With

• Serve it over pasta or polenta.
• Use it to make an Instant Pot Meatball or sausage pasta dish.
• Serve it over these creamy Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes or Instant Pot Meatloaf.
• I love it over Smoked Chicken Breast or juicy Instant Pot Pork Chops.

More Easy Recipes

• Dump and Start Instant Pot Garlic Butter Spaghetti.
• Lemon Butter Sauce in 5 mins.
• Lemon Butter Salmon Pasta.

More Air Fryer Recipes

• Air Fryer Vegetable Kabobs.
• Easy Air Fryer Pork Chops.
• Air Fryer Chicken Tenders.

Weight Watchers Points

Good news, my WW folks! A serving of this easy tomato sauce contains 0 Blue Plan SmartPoints.

Thank you for reading my Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce recipe post. And please come visit again as I continue to slice, dice and dream up affordable Air Fryer recipes, Instant Pot Recipes, Southern Recipes and more. Thanks for supporting Recipes from a Pantry, food blog.

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