Roasted Tomato Sauce
Roasting tomatoes makes an incredibly rich and concentrated tomato sauce. To roast this many tomatoes at once, you need two roasting pans so as not to crowd the ingredients. That may require two ovens or roasting in two batches. If you don’t own a roasting pan, find a friend who does and borrow one. Freezes beautifully. Serving is ¾ cup.
Servings: 16 Yield 3 quarts (12 cups)
Calories: 133kcal
Equipment
- Stainless steel roasting pans
- Food processor or blender
- Double ovens or split the batch into two
Ingredients
- 10 pounds fresh tomatoes
- 16 large whole garlic cloves, peeled
- ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ cup dry red wine optional
- 6 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves or basil leaves (or both) or 2 tablespoons dried
- 2 medium onions roughly chopped
- 1-2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar optional
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼-1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
Pre-heat Ovens
- Pre-heat the oven (s) to 425°F. Get out two large stainless steel roasting pans (like for roasting a turkey).
Prep Tomatoes
- Wash the tomatoes. Depending on the type of tomato, you may need to cut out the core first, as with large Beefsteak or Heirloom varieties. You may not need to with Roma or plum tomatoes Cut tomatoes into large chunks. Don’t cut the pieces too small. Big chunks are good. Smaller pieces roast too fast.
Roast Tomatoes
- Place tomatoes in the roasting pan. Add garlic cloves, oil, wine or broth, oregano, onion, salt and pepper. Toss with your hands. Place pans in the oven and roast until tomatoes have reduced and are starting to get a few black edges. The pan should still have some juices, not be dry. Depending on your oven it should take about 60 minutes. Stir half way through. If the tomatoes are really juicy, it may take longer.
Cool and Puree
- Remove pans from oven, set on the stove top and allow to cool until you can handle it. Carefully transfer the roast tomatoes into a food processor and pulse 5-6 times or until you get the preferred texture. You can also use a blender and process in batches. Serve or cool completely and freeze in portions.
Notes
Canning tomatoes requires a pressure canner. See notes in the post, and read about canning tomatoes on recommended links.
For tomatoes, use what is best at the market. Roma tomatoes, plum tomatoes, beefsteaks, and heirloom tomatoes all work great in this recipe.
The yield for this recipe is 2-3 quarts, depending on how far you roast or reduce the tomatoes. This sauce will keep fresh in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, or freeze for up to 6 months. Some batches I've reduced the sauce way down with little juice left in the pan. This last batch I did not go as far and got 3 beautiful quarts of sauce.
Nutrition
Serving: 0.75cup | Calories: 133kcal | Carbohydrates: 15g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Sodium: 307mg | Potassium: 731mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 2404IU | Vitamin C: 41mg | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 2mg