Slow Cooker Cherry Tomato Sauce

A simple Slow Cooker Cherry Tomato Sauce that’s super easy to make and absolutely delicious! Toss simple garden ingredients into your slow cooker and cook! The result is a sauce that’s perfect on pizza, pasta or frozen for later use!

If you have a mountain of cherry tomatoes, consider yourself blessed – because there are so many wonderful things you can do with them to transform them into yummy, delicious goodness!

My first go-to when I have a pile of those round, red gems is this tomato confit. It’s delicious spread on sourdough bread and makes the house smell AH-MAZING when it’s cooking in the oven. Yum and yum!

But if you have made confit 50,000 times, it’s time to try making a batch of this slow cooker cherry tomato sauce. Just like when making confit, this recipe will have your house smelling incredible all day. Then, at day end, use the sauce for dinner – on pizza, over pasta, or in your favorite macaroni casserole recipe.

Slow Cooker Cherry Tomato Sauce

This recipe is super easy and requires just a few garden ingredients. If you grow cherry tomatoes at home, it’s a great way to use up a bunch. If you are part of a food pantry/distribution, these cherry tomatoes are often times given out by local food banks in the warm weather months that tomatoes are in season.

Likewise, it can be a great way to use up what you get in your food box, as many times the produce will turn quickly.

For this tomato sauce, simply rinse your cherry tomatoes and dump them in your crock pot alongside some onion, garlic, oregano and even Italian seasonings (basil, thyme and the like).  

Once the tomatoes are in your slow cooker, toss in your quartered onions and garlic cloves (no need to chop or mince!)

Add some oregano, basil and thyme and drizzle the mixture with some olive oil, stir to coat, then place the lid on your slow cooker. I like to cook mine overnight as I sleep, but if you cook it during the day, you can do so on low or high.

• Low – cook 6-8 hours
• High – cook 2.5 – 3 hours

Both timeframes make for delicious sauce so do what works for you!

At the end of the cooking time, everything should soften up and be ready for a quick whiz with your immersions blender. Blend blend blend until the sauce comes together smoothly – feel free to add salt and pepper to taste as needed. 

(Don’t have an immersion blender?  Feel free to use a regular blender instead – just use caution because the sauce will be hot. ) Serve the sauce as is or season with additional seasonings, as needed.

Can this Sauce be Frozen or Canned?

While I haven’t canned this recipe, I have frozen it to use later on. Depending on your preference, do what works for your family.

To freeze:  funnel into wide mouth pint canning jars, leaving 1″ at the top. Or, opt for quart-size Ziplock bags. Once full, lay them flat on a cookie sheet, and freeze, then remove the cookie sheet later on. You’ll have evenly stacked bags in your freezer that store nicely.

Tips for Making the Best Slow Cooker Cherry Tomato Sauce

• Feel free to use your choice of herbs to amp up the flavor – thyme, basil, tarragon, or even parsley are wonderful ways to add some extra zing.
• Add a few teaspoons of granulated sugar and a Tablespoon of cocoa to the final sauce to even out the acidic flavor.
• When you remove marinara from the freezer, sometimes it can be watery. Give it a good stir/shake before using. If you are looking to thicken it up, feel free to add a jar or two of tomato paste and use your immersion blender to mix well.
• Add additional hot peppers to incorporate some spice. Some suggestions would be Fresno peppers, ghost peppers, Serrano peppers or even jalapeños!

Looking for more tomato recipes?

• Cherry Tomato Confit
• Homemade Tomato Sauce with Beef Bones
• Tomato Basil Jam
• Roasted Tomato Basil Pesto
• Pickled Cherry Bomb Peppers
• Fermented Cherry Tomatoes

Did you make this recipe? If you did, please RATE the recipe below!