Roasted Tomato Sauce

If I could have only one thing from a garden, it would be tomatoes.  Millions of them.  OK, maybe more like hundreds, or even just dozens ... but, tomatoes.  They are the reason I garden.

About a week ago, I found myself in possession of almost 30 pounds of tomatoes, all at once, all ripe.  I immediately wanted to eat every single one figure out a way to preserve one of my favorite things about summer because - I'll have to face it soon enough - winter is coming, and I'm going to need encouraging.  My friend Erin had told me that she had roasted some tomatoes and made a sauce, so I decided to try it myself.  Typical sauce-making methods call for lots more steps and time than I was willing to do - like, pureeing the solids FIRST and then boiling it for a few hours to cook off the liquids.  No, thanks.

You can make this with ANY amount of tomatoes you have - don't think that because you aren't starting with sinkfuls of tomatoes you can't do it. Also, you can adjust the other veggies you add in there - I did a batch with sweet potatoes and zucchini instead of carrots; I also think that adding more onions or garlic would make a really fantastic sauce. 

Roasted Tomato Sauce

10 lb. tomatoes
2 lb. carrots
2 sweet peppers
1 onion
2-3 cloves garlic
2-4 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper

Wash and place in a roasting pan: tomatoes with stem core removed, carrots and peppers, quartered onions, and peeled garlic cloves.

Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables, and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Stir to coat everything.

Roast at 400 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until the tomatoes have split and released their juices, and some of the other vegetables are golden brown.

Place a large colander over a large bowl; scoop out the roasted vegetables into the colander.  Let it sit and drain for 10-15 minutes.  You can gently press on the solids a bit if you need to to let the extra liquid drain out.  I highly suggest saving the liquids to use for cooking rice, braising meat, or as a soup base (I did all three).  If you're not sure what to use it in, consider substituting it whenever a recipe calls for some kind of broth.

Now, puree the solids in a blender or food processor, or with a stick blender. 

Freeze or can the sauce, according to your preference. 

Word to the wise: consider freezing it in the amount that you think you'd use at a time instead of in one giant ziploc bag.  Since we eat a lot of pizza (this kind or this kind or this kind), I freeze it in little 1/2 cup amounts - just enough for pizza sauce for two pizzas - so that I can thaw out what I'm actually going to use.  I also prefer to can tomato sauce in smaller jars for the exact same reason.  Also, it lasts longer that way. 

If we eat pizza once a week, I think I'll have enough sauce to last until March.  Summer will carry me through winter.  Encouraging, indeed.