Hey! I’m Lindsay.
I make a lot of garlic butter tomato sauce and put it on mostly everything.
What else do you wanna know?
It’s funny how this works, isn’t it? The week I made this tomato sauce for the first (and second) (and third) time, I had at least 500 neighbors and friends and relatives reach out to me and ask if I wanted some of their overflow garden tomatoes, knowing completely nothing of my new tomato sauce obsession. A little braggy of them, if you ask me, but yes, I would like your tomatoes. I may not be much good at growing my own, but I can rock the homemade garlic butter tomato sauce game.
And speaking of. Is it really tomato sauce or more of a luscious one-pan-magic type of situation? These are the important questions in my life.
How To Make Our Tomato Butter Sauce (1 MIN):
A week or so ago I made this garlic butter tomato sauce on my Instagram stories and a) LOVED your responses, and b) got asked this question: can you remove the skins and seeds?
This brings us to a very important fork in the road: if you are not big on skins and seeds, it’s time to swipe left.
I’m not saying it to be mean. I’m just saying that the entirety of the sauce is made from cherry tomatoes, which are made up of 95% skins and seeds, so if you were to take all of that out, there wouldn’t be much sauce left. Blessings for your journey, seed-hating friends. We will see you next time.
Meanwhile, those of us who fall more into the Humans Who Like Eating All The Things category will carry on with skins (blistered, just a little bit, because we fancy) and seeds in our “sauce” which, as we’ve established, is not really sauce.
Chutney? Spread? What exactly do we call something of this velvety texture?
As with most of my favorite recipes, this one is very forgiving and adaptable. So if you truly want this to be a garlic butter tomato sauce for your pasta, girl, get after it. Just use some broth or water (or this is just coming to me right now – RED WINE?) to spread it even further.
On the flip side, if you adore eggs on toast or roasted potatoes or grilled chicken or similar, and you like a little sumthin to thwap on top (think Magic Green Sauce style)? SWIPE RIGHT and let’s match. Is that what people say? I’m acting like I know dating apps right now.
Just…what I’m trying to say is you want this one. Exactly as written. It is thick, chunky, just a little tangy – hello there, balsamic – and packed with flavor thanks to some spicy garlic and a knob of butter to finish.
Bonus thing that deserves mention: everything tomato sauce + breakfast sandwich combo is not to be messed with.
Basic Garlic Butter Tomato Sauce
Total Time: 15 minutes
Yield: 1 cup sauce 1x
Description
Basic Garlic Butter Tomato sauce made with cherry tomatoes, garlic, balsamic, and butter. SO simple, good on everything.
Ingredients
Scale
- 2-ish cups cherry tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon butter
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Place the tomatoes in a nonstick skillet over medium high heat with NO OIL IN THE PAN. We are trying to blister the outsides of the skins a little bit here.
- Once the skins get a little blistered and the tomatoes are looking soft, turn the heat down to avoid lots of splatter, and add the olive oil and garlic. Be careful not to brown the garlic.
- Press the tomatoes gently with the back of a wooden spoon so they break open and release their juices. Add the balsamic and let the whole mixture reduce until it’s thickened a bit, maybe 5-10 minutes.
- Finish with the knob of butter and season with salt to taste.
Notes
If you want a thinner sauce to go on pasta, add 1/2 cup or so of water just after adding the balsamic and just let it cook down a bit.
Fresh basil would be a good decision.
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 10 mins
- Category: Sauce
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: garlic butter tomato sauce, butter tomato sauce, garlic butter sauce
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our Sauces That Make Everything Better roundup. Check it out!