A Great Roasted Tomato Sauce

Have you ever made a roasted tomato sauce? This was my first attempt and the results were better than imagined.

If you grow tomatoes and you have more than you can eat in those BLTs, your mind goes to ways to save them to enjoy during those long winter months.

If you don’t grow them? There are plenty of farm stands and farmer’s markets where you might buy them to add to your freezer or pantry.

I have roasted tomatoes and added them to the freezer. They have been a perfect addition to eggs, quiches, lasagna, spaghetti sauce, pizza and so many other recipes.

But, when I put tomato quarters, garlic, onion and herbs drizzled with olive oil, herbs and seasonings into the oven to roast?

Heavenly aroma of a new roasted tomato sauce recipe filled the air…

So amazing.

You see, last year I had all of these cherry tomatoes in the raised bed garden.

When they began to come in, I ate my way through the snack aisle; added them to salads; gave them away and here are a few creations that were made…

• tomato sauce freezer packets
• freezing roasted tomatoes
• tomato jam

So…this year?

All over the place there were people raving about roasting vegetables before making salsa and sauces.

Why not give that a try then, right?

You may have seen part of the overflow of beefsteak tomatoes…at least that what was on the tag…took over my window sill. Perhaps many haven’t seen this done…it may just be a southern farm thing.

Colanders on the counter began to overflow…

So serious planning to save them became a focus.

There were lots added to those tomato sauce freezer packets.

More cherry tomatoes were roasted and added to the freezer like years past…

But, today? Roasted tomato sauce was the plan.

First, select your tomatoes. For today’s recipe, small beefsteak tomatoes from my garden were chosen.

Begin with washing your tomatoes.

Next, quarter them and add them to a parchment paper lined baking sheet. I did remove the cores and most of the seeds for this new recipe.

Sprinkle with salt, pepper, herbs, garlic salt…add in your favorite onion and garlic cloves. Leave those skins on and remove them after roasting.

Then just roast in the oven for about 50 minutes or until roasted.

The smell of the caramelization of all of those together will fill your home with the most amazing aroma.

Promise!

When roasted, remove fresh herbs, skins from vegetables.

Use an immersion blender or add to your blender to blend all of them together.

Then, you can heat them until desired consistency and then enjoy! I stopped at the blended part.

If you have enough ingredients? Add to pint jars and water bath them for 40 minutes.

Since I had a small amount, the sauce was simply added to freezer containers, labeled and added to the freezer.

Easy, peasy!

Here’s the recipe:

When you have a small bed of tomatoes? and they are simply more than you can consume?

This recipe saved the day.

Converting tomatoes into a great roasted tomato sauce?

Genius!

Can I tell you that the peels just fall off of those roasted tomatoes and garlic? Best tip ever.

Can I give you a tip?

You can simply drop all of the roasted vegetables after peelings are removed into a food saver bag and add them to your freezer. When ready to use them, just add them to your blender or drop into your soups, sauces, etc.

For me, adding to the blender and freezing in a ready to use fashion, will just save me time later.

Although it made a small amount? It’s a perfect edition of flavor for a single serving pasta dish…topping for a pizza…OR addition to soups or chili.

Saving tomatoes one baking sheet at a time.

Mission accomplished!

I’ll take that! Hope it helps with your garden tomato saving problem, too.

Happy roasting, friends! Thanks for joining me again for “putting things away” for winter.