Spicy Minty Tomato Sauce Infused With Tomato Leaves

If you like the heat of arrabiatta sauce, you’ll love this spicy minty tomato sauce with a secret ingredient: tomato leaves! Yes, tomato leaves are edible, and yes, they add a depth of flavor that truly makes this tomato sauce shine.

Linda Ly

Written by Linda Ly

Spicy minty tomato sauce infused with tomato leaves
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Every summer it feels like I’m waiting allll yeeeaaar for my tomatoes to ripen, and then one day—after I go out of town for the weekend—I’ll come home to a garden that’s suddenly bursting at the seams with sweet, smoky, plump and juicy tomatoes.

Vine-ripened cherry tomatoes

They don’t last very long on the vine, so for the next week it’s all things tomato in the kitchen. And this is one of my favorite things to do with them: tomato sauce!

It’s quick, it’s easy, and it doesn’t involve skinning or seeding tomatoes. (If you’re not into spice, try my other homemade tomato sauce recipe that requires zero peeling.)

I always make a large batch of this sauce every summer and freeze them in jars to enjoy through the winter. If you like the heat of arrabbiata sauce, this is a bold take on it that you’ll love.

A handful of fresh parsley and mint amps up the flavor into something so special, you don’t need much more than a bowl of penne to go with it. (Well, penne and a glass of wine, that is.)

Besides pasta, it also makes the perfect base for homemade pizza, or a savory dip for garlic bread or zucchini sticks. If you want to dress up your frittatas or potatoes, a dollop of my spicy minty tomato sauce does the trick.

I’ve made this sauce many times in the past but it was only recently that I started adding a secret ingredient: tomato leaves.

After learning that tomato leaves are edible and experimenting with them in my recipes, I’ve found that the leaves add another dimension to the sauce—making it richer, more fragrant, and more tomato-y.

I have always loved the distinctly summery smell of fresh tomato vines when I brush against them in the garden, and infusing them in a puree of fresh tomatoes really brings out that burst of flavor. It’s an idea well loved by former Chez Panisse chef Paul Bertolli, who’s known for infusing his tomato sauce with tomato leaves (and even shares a recipe for such in his cookbook Cooking by Hand).

My recipe below calls for 1/3 cup tomato leaves, but I leave them on large sprigs so I can remove them from the sauce more easily. Just eyeball the amount and use the freshest, lushest leaves from your plant.

Homemade spicy minty tomato sauce in a jar

Spicy Minty Tomato Sauce Infused With Tomato Leaves

Makes 1 quart

Ingredients

2 pounds tomatoes
1/2 cup packed fresh parsley
1/3 cup packed fresh mint
4 to 5 large cloves garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup packed fresh tomato leaves
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Method

Ingredients from the garden

If needed, chop your tomatoes into smaller chunks to fit your blender. Puree the tomatoes, parsley, mint, garlic, and olive oil as smooth (or as chunky) as you like your sauce to be. Puree in batches if necessary.

Add tomatoes, parsley, mint, garlic, and olive oil to a blender
Puree tomatoes, parsley, mint, garlic, and olive oil in a blender

Combine the puree and tomato leaves in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil.

Steep tomato leaves in sauce

Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes to infuse and thicken the sauce.

Stir in the ground black pepper (don’t be afraid, put it all in!) and red pepper flakes.

Add ground black pepper

When done, discard the tomato leaves and use the sauce right away in your favorite recipe, or decant into a lidded jar and refrigerate. The sauce should last one to two weeks in the fridge, but can also be frozen.

Spicy minty tomato sauce infused with tomato leaves
Yield: 1 quart

Spicy Minty Tomato Sauce Infused With Tomato Leaves

Spicy minty tomato sauce infused with tomato leaves

If you like the heat of arrabiatta sauce, you'll love this spicy minty tomato sauce with a secret ingredient: tomato leaves!

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 2 pounds tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup packed fresh parsley
  • 1/3 cup packed fresh mint
  • 4 to 5 large cloves garlic
  • 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/3 cup packed fresh tomato leaves
  • 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions

  1. If needed, chop your tomatoes into smaller chunks to fit your blender. Puree the tomatoes, parsley, mint, garlic, and olive oil as smooth (or as chunky) as you like your sauce to be. Puree in batches if necessary.
  2. Combine the puree and tomato leaves in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil.
  3. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 minutes to infuse and thicken the sauce.
  4. Stir in the ground black pepper (don't be afraid, put it all in!) and red pepper flakes.
  5. When done, discard the tomato leaves and use the sauce right away in your favorite recipe, or decant into a lidded jar and refrigerate.

Notes

The sauce should last one to two weeks in the fridge, but can also be frozen.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1 cup
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 176Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 12gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 18mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 4gSugar: 6gProtein: 3g

Nutrition information isn’t always accurate.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram

© Linda Ly
Cuisine: Italian / Category: Everyday Eats & Sweets

View the Web Story on spicy minty tomato sauce with tomato leaves.

This post updated from an article that originally appeared August 22, 2013.

Linda Ly

I'm a plant lover, passionate road-tripper, and cookbook author whose expert advice and bestselling books have been featured in Time, Outside, HGTV, and Food & Wine. The National Parks Cookbook is my latest book. Garden Betty is where I write about modern homesteading, farm-to-table cooking, and outdoor adventuring—all that encompass a life well-lived outdoors. After all, the secret to a good life is... Read more »

36 Comments

  1. Thank you for sharing this recipe. It sounds yummy. What type of tomatoes have you used for the sauce. Here in the heat of north Texas, the only tomatoes that grow well during our hot and humid summers are the cherry tomatoes. Can I uses those in this recipe?

    Reply

  2. I liked this recipe very much, but was confused why to remove the tomato leaves at the end. They are FULL of vitamins and taste delicious. So I just cut them up and added them to the simmer, and it was a hit!

    Reply

  3. looking forward to trying this minty spicy tomato sauce! wonder whether you have any culinary advice for those of us who have to rely on canned tomatoes for our sauces? in my garden, the tomatoes are tall and covered in flowers and fruit beginning in May BUT ripening won’t happen until July.
    what’s the best way to get full tomato flavor from canned tomatoes? And, it would be wonderful if you had a tomato SOUP recipe that also incorporated tomato leaves.

    Reply

    1. Getting the best flavor from canned tomatoes will mostly come from getting the best brand. I personally like Cento San Marzano and Bianco DiNapoli. If those aren’t easy to find, my next choices would be the Whole Foods house brand or Muir Glen Organics. If you want to deepen the flavor of tomato soup, just steep a few sprigs of tomato leaves in it. 🙂

      Reply

  4. I feel like I can run up to you to give you a hug for the information contained in your posts.

    Like this one, you refer to the use of tomato leaves!

    I’d LOVE to use as much of my vegetable and herb plants especially the leaves instead of composting, for instance.

    Do you have a type of Cheat Sheet for how and which sections of vegetables and herbs can be used for eating?

    Thanks a mill

    Reply

  7. I have a surplus of tomatoes- and mint- Can I process this in a water bath and store in the pantry? Going to try this with a hot pepper while they are ripe in the garden. I think I’m going to try it with a fish pepper.

    Reply

    1. You’ll have to raise the acidity level by adding 2 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice per quart. And you’ll have to check what the recommended processing time is for your altitude. Sea level is generally 40 minutes for a standard tomato sauce.

      Reply

  9. Yum, so simply, but I love the mint twist. (Wish it were summer here in SA.) Btw, I LOVE your blog. Such a delightful discovery… I made your kimchi over the weekend (only ingredient I substituted were dried chilli flakes)… But I don’t know if it’s working. It’s been five days now… it doesn’t taste very strong/fermented! Maybe I made a mistake somewhere. It DOES look very pretty sitting in jars on my fridge though.

    Reply

    1. Thank you!

      As for the kimchi, if your kitchen is cooler than mine, it could take a couple of weeks to ferment. It really just depends on your ambient room temperature. (In the middle of summer my ferments take 1 week or less, but in the middle of winter they take 2 weeks or more. I live in a very mild climate though.)

      Reply

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