Thursday, August 21, 2008

My Roasted Tomato Sauce

I would say this is my famous tomato sauce, but it's so good I'm rather greedy with it and have a hard time sharing. This sauce is great to make when you have a lot of tomatoes since they DO NOT need to be peeled or seeded. You could make a smaller batch than seen here, as well.

Here is what you'll need:



Tomatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, basil, olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar, other herbs - I used thyme. Those peppers were for another recipe.

Wash and core tomatoes and roughly chop. Throw out the rotten bits. Peel and roughly chop carrots, onion, and garlic. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of sugar. It will look like this:



Repeat.



Place in 450 degree oven and stir every half hour or so. You'll need to check more often on a smaller pan. It will become extremely juicy, then as it contines to cook the juices will evaporate leaving an amazing concentrated tomato taste. I added the thyme after about an hour and stirred the basil in just as this finished. The big pan cooked for close to 2 hours. Here is what it should look like:




Let cool, and then process in food processor. The result is very thick and has quite a bit of small carrot chunks. I'm sure if you processed it longer it would be less chunky, but I like it like this.




I freeze approximately 12 ounce portions in these zipper bags and then double bag them in gallon freezer bags. We ate our last 2007 serving last month and it still tasted great. I have 18 bags worth from this batch.



This took me around 5 hours from start to clean-up with lots of breaks since my back was killing me. I only serve this sauce with pasta and no other additions because I love it so much. It is extremely thick and needs to be diluted with some of the pasta water to thin it out. Let me know if you decide to try this!

12 comments:

bermudaonion said...

That looks delicious! I will be trying it when I can get hold of enough tomatoes.

Lezlie said...

This looks awesome! I may have to give it a try!

Lezlie

J.L. Danger said...

I will definitely try it! It looks great. I will let you know how I do.

I noticed on your random books from my library list that you have Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky. Did you enjoy it? My M.I.L. just passed her copy my way and I am going to start it soon.

Tara said...

Bermudaonion, let me know what you think, if you do!

Lezlie, thanks, let me know if you try it.

J. Danger, definitely let me know if you try it. I did enjoy Suite Francaise and have actually read it twice, the second time to discuss with my book club. Not all of them liked it, so I know there are differing opinions. I think you have to accept it for what it is (do you know the backstory?), since Nemirovsky never got to edit it herself, to my knowledge. I think it's an important document since it was written during the war by someone who saw what was going on and what might be coming - and of course didn't know the final outcome. I think it was very brave.

Nan said...

Wow! Very impressive and colorful!

annette emms said...

How lovely! I just found you, via Nan.
Can't wait to try this recipe, thank you.

Anonymous said...

I`ve just made this sauce and it was delicious. I did actually add some red peppers to the mixture. We ate it with spaghetti squash as my husband doesn`t eat pasta. Definitely a recipe to be repeated when I have more tomatoes ready to be picked. We also grow spaghetti squash - it can`t be found in the shops here in Spain.

Many thanks for the recipe.

Tara said...

Nan, thanks!

Annette Emms, hello, thank you for saying hello! Nan has a wonderful list of tempting sites, doesn't she?!

Jane, hello! Thanks for stopping by and especially for letting me know you made the sauce. I love the idea of adding red peppers - yum! I'll have to try that.

astzt1027 said...

This looks delicious. Do you have a recommended ratio of incredients? I love to experiment, but I don't have much with tomatoes. I would think 3-1-1 (three parts tomato to 1 part of any other incredient).

Tara said...

astzt1027, thanks, and thanks for stopping by. The original reference for this calls for 8 pounds tomatoes, 10 large onions, 15 cloves garlic. 3-1-1 sounds good, esp. considering the carrots, which I use a lot of.

melissa s. said...

hi there - i'm here via your mama urchin comment. your sauce sounds lovely! have you ever canned it?

Tara said...

Mamablogger, Hi! I emailed you, but for everyone else: no, I haven't.