Roasting tomatoes in the oven concentrates its incredible flavors, so why not roast instead of boil your tomatoes for a succulent homemade sauce?
I never bothered to make my own sauce until this summer. Between our garden tomatoes and our CSA box (straight from the farm produce), we were getting more tomatoes each week than we could consume. We did plenty of “sun-dried” tomatoes in the dehydrator but making sauce was the natural next step in tomato preservation.
Most recipes for homemade sauce call for boiling the whole tomatoes to peel the skin, seeding them, then boiling the death out of them. The whole peeling thing was an extra step I didn’t want to bother with, especially when you have 10 pounds of cherry tomatoes on the verge of spoiling .
One of our favorite side dishes this summer was oven roasted tomatoes with garlic and herbs. The flavor is so intense and the prep is so simple – I figured turning this into a sauce would be perfect.
The method is easy, roast pans of cut tomatoes with garlic cloves and various herbs, sprinkle with olive oil and sea salt then pass them through a food mill. If I want paste – I let the tomatoes roast longer so most of the water content evaporates.
I guess my next project is to learn how to can my own sauce and paste – maybe next summer. But for now I just freeze them in ice cube trays and mason jars
Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce and Paste
There are no measurements needed. Roast as many tomatoes as you like. Yield also varies on how thick or juicy you prefer your sauce/paste.
Tomatoes
Garlic cloves (to taste)
Fresh herbs (thyme, oregano, rosemary, tarragon, marjoram)
Extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2.Cut tomatoes in half and place on roasting pans.
3. Distribute garlic cloves, herbs, oil, and salt over tomatoes and place pans in the oven.
4. Roast for about 2 hours for sauce, 3 for paste. Make sure to check the pans periodically, different size tomatoes will roast faster and can quickly burn.
5. Pass through a *food mill. Adjust seasoning and refrigerate, can, or freeze. Ice cube trays and muffin tins work well for freezing different serving sizes.
*If you don’t have a food mill, you can use a food processor or blender. You will have to remove the garlic skins and tougher herb stems before or after roasting.
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