Easy All-Purpose Roasted Tomato Sauce

I’ve been very blessed to have been born with a green thumb, and this year’s garden has been very kind to me!

If you’ve been following my blog, I’ve made several sauces this year that were terrific! Some with a kick, and some with fresh herbs right from my little herb garden!

But I thought that it was time to make a regular, no-frills, all-purpose sauce that I can use as is, or doctor it up later any way that I want.

And it’s so easy to make you’ll want to make some, too!

This time I used just roams, as I had a bunch ripen all at the same time! But you can use any one variety or mix them up such as Patio, grape, cherry, Beefsteak, etc. Whatever you happen to have on hand either fresh from your own garden, or from your local farmer’s market!

There are only a few quick and easy steps to this, and you’ve got yourself a wonderfully rich, fresh and handy, roasted tomato sauce!

Get your oven preheating to 375º, and start by slicing your tomatoes in half and placing them cut side-up onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. *I like to use an old ugly towel underneath, as this can get kind of messy.

Medium-sized tomatoes will need to be quartered, and large tomatoes, such as beefsteak, will need to be cored and cut into eighths.

Once you have them all sliced, season them with a little sprinkling of kosher salt, and either spray the tops with butter-flavored no-stick spray such as Crisco’s, or drizzle them lightly with olive oil.

Pop them into the preheated oven and bake for 1 hour. If you place your baking sheet in the center of the oven, you’ll get a very light charring, mostly light brown.

The upper rack will have almost none and the rack closer to the bottom will have the most charring.

I placed both of my sheets into the oven using an upper and lower rack and didn’t rotate them halfway so that I had a nice mix and the sauce wouldn’t have too much charred bits in it.

This works really well for our tastes.

I then like to place them cut side-down in batches into a colander to let the excess juice and seeds drain. Then add them to a bowl.

I just use my hands, but you can use a slotted spoon if you like for the next step, which is to add them to your food processor. *Only add up to the “max line” at a time that’s marked on the processor bowl.

Simply process until smooth…..

….then ladle your sauce into jars or freezer containers leaving a 1″ space at the top for expansion when freezing.

Let your sauce cool, then place on the lids and freeze!

It’s just that easy! ????

From here, you can use this “as is” in place of store-bought tomato sauce, or you can add anything you want to it, and even cook it down a little if you’d like a thicker sauce!

It comes in very handy, has wonderful flavor, and it’s a great way to use up an overabundance of tomatoes!

I hope that you’ve found this to be helpful and enjoy trying this super easy method of making your own roasted tomato sauce! Take care! ????

 

Ingredients

Ingredients:

• fresh tomatoes, de-stemmed, cored if necessary, (*halve smaller varieties such as Roma, grape, cherry, etc., quarter medium-sized tomatoes such as Patio, large tomatoes need to be cut into eighths such as Beefsteak)
• 1 tsp.kosher salt per filled baking sheet
• a few dashes of pepper, optional
• nonstick spray, salad oil or olive oil

Tools Needed:

• paring knife
• parchment paper
• large (rimmed) baking sheet
• colander
• large bowl
• food processor (or blender)
• jars or freezer containers

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375º F.

Remove any stems and wash off tomatoes with cold water. Set aside to dry.

Line one (or more) baking sheet(s) with parchment paper.

With a paring knife, slice small tomatoes in half and medium-sized tomatoes into fourths. (You will need to cut out core of large tomatoes such as Beefsteak and they need to be cut into eighths.)

Place tomatoes cut side-up onto prepared baking sheet(s). Baking sheet should be very full with a single layer.

Sprinkle with about 1 tsp. kosher salt and spray tops with butter-flavored or plain no-stick spray, or drizzle lightly with olive oil.

Place baking sheet(s) into oven and roast for about 1 hour or until tomatoes are just starting to look dried, bubbling a little, and bottoms have a very slight char.

Remove from oven and cool just slightly.

With fingers or tongs, place (a few at a time) into colander cut side-down to drain. Remove them to a bowl and continue with rest of tomatoes.

In batches, add to food processor, leaving any excess liquid behind, and process until as smooth as desired. (Skins and all.)

Ladle into jars or containers and freeze.

Use in place of store-bought tomato sauce.