Have a glut of homegrown tomatoes you're trying to get rid of? THIS is what to do with those extra tomatoes: slow roast 'em.
I've discovered many, many, many, many things about myself over the years. Things like my weird love of the word many.
But the most important thing I've learned about myself is that I will always take seconds. If I make dinner, I will get up for seconds. If I go out for dinner to a friend's or relative's house I will get up for seconds.
It doesn't matter how side splittingly full I am after the first plate, I want more. My stomach could be so stretched out from food that I'm screaming in pain and I would still fart my way over to the casserole and take another helping.
I'm fun like that.
Once I understood this interesting fact about myself, I conspired to trick myself. It was kindda hard. I'm clever, but on the other hand … so am I.
I came up with a plan a couple of years ago and I've fooled myself with it ever since. Think this whole fooling myself thing is dumb? How many of you out there change the time on your bedside clock and yet every single morning you wake up too stupid to know what time it really is.
So what I do (knowing I will NO MATTER WHAT take a second serving of food) is make my first serving smaller. Yeah. It was that simple. Instead of my regular end of the day lumberjack sized serving, I take a little less. So when I get my second serving, I'm really only eating the amount of food I would normally eat (not necessarily *should* eat).
I'm a profound overeater at dinner. More than once the neighbours have found me rolling around on the front lawn with a fork in one hand and a bottle of Gaviscon in the other crying incoherently about a tumour in my stomach which is really 17 meatballs.
Did somebody say meatballs? I have a great sauce for those!
This summer I swore I wasn't going to waste a single vegetable I grew. That didn't come true. I wasted all kinds. It's almost impossible to use every single thing you grow, or even give it away. You go up to the garden and a watermelon you thought wouldn't be ripe for a few days got ripe overnight and rotten within a few days. Tomatoes are bitten by bacteria riddled raccoon monsters or a cucumber sits on the kitchen counter with good intentions of turning it into something. Which you do. You turn it into a rotting mess.
So when all of my 15 tomato plants started to produce ripe tomatoes at the exact same time I knew I had to formulate a plan or forever think of myself as the tomato waster.
Last year I roasted all of my extra tomatoes and froze them. Which was great. They were delicious. But you still had to make them into a bit of a sauce once you took them out of the freezer. Boil them down a bit, add some liquid, some more seasoning … that sort of thing.
So this year I went another route. I roasted my tomatoes but I added a few more things to the roasting pan and added one more step.
This is really easy so feel free to use only a portion of your brain to read this post.
I forgot to mention to drizzle the bottom of the pan and the top of the tomatoes with olive oil. A pretty good glug.
Roasted Tomato Sauce.
A delicious way to use up the glut of garden tomatoes.
This isn't a recipe that requires strict measurements. As long as you follow the technique you'll end up with delicious sauce.
Ingredients
- 10 or so tomatoes (quartered or halved)*
- 1 onion (peeled and chopped into quarters)
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 2 cloves whole garlic (do not peel)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 hot pepper halved, or ¼ teaspoon dried pepper flakes
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 F.**
- Add everything to a sheet pan and douse with some olive oil. Mix everything up so it's all coated nicely and put the pan in the oven.
- Roast for 3 hours (checking on them and stirring every hour or so).
- When the ingredients look roasted and dark and caramelized in some spots you can take the mixture out of the oven.
- Remove the bay leaf then once everything is cool enough to handle, put it in a blender and blend it up to whatever consistency you like.
- Freeze leftovers.
Notes
* Adding cherry tomatoes if you have access to them will sweeten your sauce beautifully!
** Your roasting temperature might be different. Some ovens run hotter or cooler than others. Check your tomatoes and if after 1.5 hours they aren't showing any signs of roasting at all you can turn your oven up (or down if needed) in 25 degree increments.
Just throw everything on the pan. The only thing you really have to remember is only having a single layer on the pan, and allowing space in between the ingredients. This will stop your tomatoes from steaming instead of roasting.
One pan like this will get you around 3 servings of sauce.
Roast everything in the oven at a lowish temperature, (around 300F) for a few hours. You just have to keep checking on them. You only need to stir them 2 or three times to make sure they're evenly roasted.
Once all the ingredients are roasted and your kitchen smells like you really know what you're doing, pull the tomatoes out and let them cool a bit. Remove the bay leaf. If you don't like a lot of heat remove one or both of the peppers.
Now you have 2 choices.
Use the roasted tomatoes on your pasta as is, which is rustic and delicious. Or blend them into more of a sauce.
To make them into a sauce, put everything else in your blender and blend until you like the consistency.
I did one batch completely blended so there was no trace of tomato skins or seeds, and another batch I left more rough, with bits of tomatoes and skin visible.
Then I spooned serving sizes onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper and froze them. Once they're frozen you can just pop them off the waxed paper and put them in a freezer bag or tupperware and return them to the freezer.
I ended up pulling one out right away because I wanted to make chicken parmesan.I always want to make chicken parmesan, but I don't because I can never be bothered to make a whole batch of sauce for the 3 tablespoons I need for the recipe to top the chicken. This sauce, always on hand in the freezer, solves that problem.
It does not however, solve the always taking a second serving problem. At all.
Diane Amick
Can't wait to harvest the last of my tomatoes - chop them up and have a go at this fabulous way to savor all that hard work during this past spring/summer next February when we're under two feet of snow. Thankyouthankyouthankyou.
jainegayer
Today's post totally makes up for the "lash egg, breakfast barfing" post from yesterday.
Can't wait to try roasting my tomatoes.
SuzyMcQ
Looks incredible, Karen, and I'm off to the garden, in the pouring rain, to see what's out there to throw in the oven. I did want to ask about olive oil...no olive oil on these?
Karen
omg! Yes there is! I totally forgot to mention that. I'll amend the post right now! I drizzle the bottom of the sheet, then drizzle the top of the tomatoes. ~ karen
BethH
I can hear the concertina wheezing in the background as a baking sheet of perfectly seasoned tomatoes gently roasts in a slow oven even as I type. Now, how about an interesting recipe for a million green cherry tomatoes besides tomato relish? Something different. Something savory. The chances of me letting all these ripen without rotting is as thin as a witch's lip.
zoe
I was about to ask a question and I just answered my own question by actually using my brain....
This sounds delicious though :)
Teresa
Hahaha! That was really funny.
Mary Werner
Karen - I think many of us would be willing to pay a fair price for a cookbook of yours. You could then give the proceeds to a charity that you support like community gardens. What a great way for us to give and get. I'm thinking a homey, self produced cookbook that has plastic coil binding and lays flat many, many, many churches produce.
Erin
I love this post! The going back for seconds thing - that's something I had to figure out too. Except for pizza. I always eat way too much, but I can't stop myself. It's like I think its the last time it will be available...forever.
I will try the roasted sauce today. I have been roasting some heirloom Principe Borghese tomatoes (small like for sundried tomatoes) but have just been cooking down the big ones for sauce. Duh! It's time to be happy.
Su
Genius! wish I had some tomatoes to do this..... darn muskrat... may have to go beg some somewhere
Kim
Oh you guys and your WIT! And Karen....geez, I just got to yesterday's post and threw up a little. But you redeemed yourself with that beautiful sheet of tomatoes.
Tigersmom
Excellent! A new food to add to my roasting bender.
My oven has never seen so much action. It says "thank you" between long drags off its cigarette.
Madhu Ramakrishnan
i can't wait to have that
SeaDee
Doooo doo doooo doo. Get outta my brain! I just sat down after putting my pan #5 of all those ingredients in the oven (it's 12:30am)! I had a ton that were on their way to rotten and I hate to waste. And it's sooo easy and yummy. I figure I'll end up with about 45 cups of sauce!
Jamie
Ohhh thank you! Sadly my tomatoes weren't overly prolific, but my brother in law's were and he just dropped off a ton. Now I have a plan :)
Bobbi
My pitiful tomato harvest just gave me enough for tomato sandwiches. No tomatoes left at all. You are correct, though...roasting is the way to go for great tomato sauce.
Erika Collins
I was so inspired I just chopped up all the recommended ingredients and they are roasting away in the oven (as we digest our second helpings of dinner..... ) Our house smells like what I imagine Italy smells like at dinnertime...cannot wait to sample the paste! Thanks for the great idea!
Karen
O.K. You win the award for fastest ever, lol. ~ karen!
Sue T.
Sounds and looks wonderful ! Don't suppose you would consider making one of your printer friendly versions of your recipe ?............Please and Thank you!
Rosey
Mmmmm! I do this too but I add a splash of balsamic. So yummy!
Laura
There were so many brilliant little humorous bits in this post... My favorite thing was my mental image of you gracefully farting your way back in the direction of a casserole. I laughed out loud!
Louise
Mmmmm. . . . looks yummy! Is that a bowl full of the rustic sauce, or is it topping something? It looks so good that I might actually make this recipe!
Karen
It is indeed a bowl of the sauce Louise. I have to say it's not the most appetizing thing in the world, lol, but the sauce is SO great, I can't say enough about it. I've made 3 batches of it and I'm going to have to make more because I'm going through it like crazy. I've used it for homemade ravioli, and the chicken I mentioned, and just plain old store bought dry pasta. It makes everything taste like you spent hours on it! Because you did, but really it was days, weeks or months ago and you really didn't have to do much more than stick some tomatoes in the oven. :) ~ karen
Pam'a
I can't help but think it'd be easily adaptable for PIZZA SAUCE as well. :)
Jamieson
This post was like going back for seconds! It was like two, two, two posts in one. I'm going to credit you with doing that slyly on purpose!