Roasted Tomato Sauce

This may be the second-best thing I've made all summer. It, too, is a tomato dish.

Roasted Tomato Sauce
Based on a recipe from Pasta & Co. By Request

3 pounds of tomatoes
1/2 cup olive oil
8 medium to large garlic cloves, peeled
1 cup fresh basil leaves or 3 tablespoons fresh rosemary, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
2 medium onions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Core the tomatoes, and slice in half horizontally. Place the tomatoes, cut side up, in a casserole dish.

Put the basil or rosemary, olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper in the bowl of a food processor equipped with a steel blade. Process until the garlic is finely chopped.



Pour the mixture over the tomatoes


and bake for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours or until the tomatoes collapse and begin to caramelize. Your house and kitchen will smell amazing the entire time. Stir the tomatoes ever so often.

In the meantime, roughly chop up two onions and saute over medium heat in a bit of olive oil.


When they onions have some color to them, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Reduce heat as low as it will go, cover the onions, and let them be.

When the tomatoes are cooked down, remove from the pan from the oven.


Puree the sauce, plus the caramelized onions, through the food processor.

We had some the next day on pizzas and it was lovely. I froze the rest.


I plan to hit the farmer's market tomorrow for more tomatoes. This time, I'll double the recipe. I'm going to make as much of this as I can while the fresh tomatoes are still good. Just think: lasagne, all kinds of pasta, pizza, so much you can do with this sauce.

The original recipe says it yields 4 1/2 cups. I got right at 3 1/2 cups of sauce. Maybe I should triple it, now that I think about it. I want lots of sauce in the freezer to enjoy this winter.