Cold, foggy weather after a morning of thunder and lightening storms kept us indoors all day today. We Californians can't deal with the scary wet weather! J and I started some really cool kitchen projects though, so stay tuned. I'll post Deborah Madison's roasted tomato sauce first, because it's truly a keeper. I never knew tomato sauce from scratch could be so delicious or so easy; I'll never make sauce from canned tomatoes again (at least not during the summer). I understand buying pasta sauce in a jar because it's a great pantry item for a 10 minute meal. But if you have time to make sauce from canned tomatoes, you have time to make sauce from raw tomatoes!
To start, take 2-3 pounds of tomatoes and slice them into fairly large chunks. It really doesn't matter how big as long as your pieces are roughly the same size. Add whatever you like. I threw in a sliced onion, five cloves of crushed garlic, some bay leaves, salt, pepper, generous tablespoons of dried sage, oregano, and thyme, and drizzled plenty of olive oil over the whole mixture. Bell peppers, basil, parsley, mushrooms, or whatever else you like in your sauce can also go in at this point. Make sure everything is evenly coated in olive oil, and put into an oven heated to 375 degrees. The temperature isn't crucial, so feel free to pop it in the oven with something else.
After an hour or two, your tomatoes will start to shrivel up and look charred around the edges. The more you dry them out, the more concentrated the flavor of your sauce will be. You can decide if you want more of a fresh, raw tomato taste in your sauce or if you prefer a thicker, more concentrated flavor akin to that of tomato paste. Let the pan cool, remove any bay leaves or hard herb stems, then pour everything into a blender. Make sure you scrape in any juices, olive oil, or bits that collect at the bottom of the pan.
Tada! Easy tomato sauce without any stirring, straining, or worrying about something burning on the stovetop. The color of the sauce will vary depending on what tomatoes are used, but don't let the orange color trick you into thinking this is inferior to a deep red sauce. If anything, this is better! Deborah Madison, you are a genius. This sauce is so delicious I've made it three times this week with nary a fail. I ate one quart, froze one quart, and tomorrow I think I'll make part of the last quart into cream of tomato soup. Because the flavors are so bright and fresh, this sauce was best lightly warmed through with pasta instead of being further cooked in a complicated sauce. But some peas, basil, or Parmesan are a simple and delicious addition to what has become a go-to recipe for me.
To start, take 2-3 pounds of tomatoes and slice them into fairly large chunks. It really doesn't matter how big as long as your pieces are roughly the same size. Add whatever you like. I threw in a sliced onion, five cloves of crushed garlic, some bay leaves, salt, pepper, generous tablespoons of dried sage, oregano, and thyme, and drizzled plenty of olive oil over the whole mixture. Bell peppers, basil, parsley, mushrooms, or whatever else you like in your sauce can also go in at this point. Make sure everything is evenly coated in olive oil, and put into an oven heated to 375 degrees. The temperature isn't crucial, so feel free to pop it in the oven with something else.
After an hour or two, your tomatoes will start to shrivel up and look charred around the edges. The more you dry them out, the more concentrated the flavor of your sauce will be. You can decide if you want more of a fresh, raw tomato taste in your sauce or if you prefer a thicker, more concentrated flavor akin to that of tomato paste. Let the pan cool, remove any bay leaves or hard herb stems, then pour everything into a blender. Make sure you scrape in any juices, olive oil, or bits that collect at the bottom of the pan.
Tada! Easy tomato sauce without any stirring, straining, or worrying about something burning on the stovetop. The color of the sauce will vary depending on what tomatoes are used, but don't let the orange color trick you into thinking this is inferior to a deep red sauce. If anything, this is better! Deborah Madison, you are a genius. This sauce is so delicious I've made it three times this week with nary a fail. I ate one quart, froze one quart, and tomorrow I think I'll make part of the last quart into cream of tomato soup. Because the flavors are so bright and fresh, this sauce was best lightly warmed through with pasta instead of being further cooked in a complicated sauce. But some peas, basil, or Parmesan are a simple and delicious addition to what has become a go-to recipe for me.
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