Roasted Tomato Sauce
FatFree: Virginia Brubaker <brubaker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Here's a recipe adapted from "The New Vegetarian Epicure" by Anna Thomas that we wildly enjoyed this week: (comments are hers)
For years I thought the simple tomato sauce I made in a skillet, sauteing garlic and tomatoes in a bit of ol*ve oil, was as easy as it could get, but this may be even easier. It takes time in the oven, but hardly any work. More importantly, roasting tomatoes concentrates their flavor to a rich, dark essence that is a mystical experience for tomato addicts.
4 lbs. very red summer tomatoes (12-16 medium tomatoes)
1 lb. sweet onions
5 large cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt, more to taste
3 Tbs. coarsely chopped fresh basil
Peel the tomatoes in the usual way: Cut a cross in the bottom of each one with a sharp knife and put them in boiling water for one minute. Remove them from the hot water directly into cold water, then slip off their skins and trim them over a bowl, catching all the juice.
Cut the tomatoes into large chunks or wedges. Peel and chop the onions. Peel and slice the garlic cloves.
Toss together all the ingredients, including the juice of the tomatoes, and spread it all evenly over a large baking sheet with edges.
Put the tomatoes in a 375 degree oven and roast them for about 2-2 1/2 hours, stirring once after the first hour, then every 30 minutes or so. Most of the liquid will cook away, and the tomatoes will melt into a soft, thick, slightly carmelized marmalade. It's wonderful.
Serve this on pasta, with rice, on pizza, with polenta, in soups, in a quesadilla, in an omelet-alonside anything that goes well with tomatoes.
Makes 2-2 1/2 cups.
Virginia's comments: We cooked this in a (deeper and smaller) lasagna pan for almost four hours. It still had not cooked down to the quantity Thomas suggests, but it smelled so good we had to eat it! Yum!!
We made this recipe again last night for the second time, using two jelly roll pans and cooking at 425 degrees for about 4 hours. It cooked down better this way. Thanks for the temperature suggestion!
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Sherron, Poi Boy & Jazzy
La Palma, California (but my heart is in Hawaii)
See our rats at: http://users.deltanet.com/~dwp/ratgallery.html
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