Saturday, August 14, 2010

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce


Marinara Sauce


Marinara sauce is one of those things that always seemed hard. (Like butter.) The hubby and I had tried to make our own sauce once, in college. We ended up with a soggy, watery, sad mess. But with all these luscious CSA tomatoes, I knew the time had come to tackle it again! I used this recipe as inspiration and then proceeded to change, well, almost everything. The brilliant part though? No stewing, boiling, or reducing needed!

Makes approximately 2 quarts of sauce

Ingredients
olive oil
10 medium tomatoes
1/3 medium onion
1/2 head of garlic
1 1/2 tbsp fresh basil
1 tbsp dried basil
1/2 tbsp salt
ground pepper
3 tbsp lemon juice

Directions
PREHEAT oven to 450F
BRUSH two baking sheets with oil

SEPARATE garlic cloves, leaving skin on the cloves
WRAP garlic cloves in foil
CRIMP edges of foil tightly

SLICE tomatoes and onion about 1/4" thick
ARRANGE tomato and onion slices on baking sheets, do not overlap
SPRINKLE with basil, salt, and pepper
PLACE garlic packet on baking sheet

Oven Roasted Spagetti Sauce


BAKE (both pans together) for 15 minutes, one in the top 1/3 of the oven, one in the lower 1/3
SWITCH positions of the pans
BAKE for another 15-20 minutes

Oven Roasted Spagetti Sauce


UNWRAP garlic
REMOVE skins

PUREE garlic, tomatoes, onions, and lemon juice in a food processor

Oven Roasted Spagetti Sauce


Enjoy!

My Thoughts
1. This is a wonderful base recipe, you could easily add a variety of other herbs (fresh thyme and rosemary would be wonderful) or vegetables. Add in meat, cheese, olives, capers, etc after the pureeing stage to create specialty sauces .

2. This was also super easy. The hardest part is the 30 minute bake time. This has weeknight potential!

3. This is also a great candidate for making ahead and freezing. I've heard people suggest freezing sauces in ice cube trays to get even amounts to use for baking. You can also freeze in plastic bags and simply run under hot water to thaw.

4. Given how easy, fresh, and tasty this is I have no intention of eating jarred sauce ever again.

12 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:11 AM

    Interesting idea to make a sauce.

    The problem I see here is that it uses fresh tomatoes, and the time of the year when there are tomatoes that are worth the name in the shops is too short. Canned tomatoes are then the way to go, as they were canned in summer, at the peak time of tomatoes.

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  2. Thats why we made it now (during tomato season) and froze a bunch.

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  3. This REALLY makes me want a food processor. It looks and sounds delish! :)

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  4. This is awesome. I've got 20 tomatoes on my counter right now. I freeze my sauce (I grow tomatoes and have tons every year). Then I thaw it out, add in some Italian Sausage and I have amazing spaghetti sauce in 20 minutes.

    I am using your recipe for sure. The 30 min baking may seem hard, but to get fresh tomatoes to the right consistancy on the stove takes all day. Hooray!!

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  5. yay! looks super yummy!
    My tomatoes are late this year... the plants just started blossoming last week... when I have loads of them, I'll be using this recipe for sure! : )

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  6. thx! I just picked a bunch of tomatoes & basil from my backyard & wanted to do something different. I already have a couple gallons of sauce from our CSA tomatoes. I'll be making this tomorrow!

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  7. New follower - great recipe

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  8. I just made some, it was AWESOME! Thx for the recipe. I will definitely be making it again.

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  9. I made it and WOW! That was the best marinara from fresh tomatoes I've ever had. Do you mind if I post a link to it on my blog? I don't want to forget this amazing recipe.

    http://jilleen-of-all-trades.blogspot.com/

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  10. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!

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  11. DJ Rose--Link away! : )

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