Whoa... ROASTING tomato sauce!!!

[Reesha]

I very nearly shouted "Eureka!" today when I pulled my tomatoes and garlic out of the oven and had a taste.

I heard last year that my favorite Italian restaurant in St. Louis (Onesto) roasted their sauces but I didn't bother trying it until today! I've been making tomato sauce from scratch for years, but always just on the stove. Roma tomatoes, fresh basil, garlic, shallots mainly. I always hated the idea of adding sugar to make it sweeter since there is so much sweetness latent in the tomatoes. I just needed to know how to access it!

Today I chopped up roma tomatoes and garlic coarsely and roasted them at 400 degrees for 45 minutes with a little salt and pepper. When they came out, they were nearly as sweet as ketchup!! Well, maybe not quite that sweet, but pretty durn sweet.

Then I put them in a pot and slow cooked the tomatoes and garlic with fresh basil. I think I could eat a giant bowl of it with grated romano-- no pasta necessary!

Woo!

Anyone else roast their tomatoes before tomato sauce time?

[GLC1968]

Anyone else roast their tomatoes before tomato sauce time?

No, but I'm sure going to give it a try after reading this! Thanks for the idea!

[OakLeaf]

Haven't tried that - and though it sounds delicious, I probably never will. Tomatoes come on in the hottest part of the summer and fall. The boiling water canner heats my kitchen up enough, without turning the oven on too. (Oven canning is not recommended.) One of these lives I'll have a summer kitchen...

I did roast one batch of applesauce last fall. Same idea - slightly caramelized - it's a beautiful color and super tasty! I still have one quart left. Mmmmmm.

[Becky]

I love that idea! C'mon tomatoes, get ripe- I wanna make sauce!

*wonders if she can roast outside on the gas grill set on low*

[Murphy3201]

Anyone make soup with roasted veggies? Same as with the tomatoes, it really deepens the flavor & if done in the winter it heats the kitchen up very nicely.

[Reesha]

we just got our first round of arkansas tomatoes in grocery stores yummms

I would probably slow roast them if it weren't so daggum hot here right now... 200 degrees over four hours, just tomatoes though, no garlic. I bet they'd be even sweeter.

[Pedal Wench]

I'm assuming this will only work with fresh tomatoes, but do you think it would help canned ones?

[limewave]

Yumm. Must give this a try.

I have made roasted vegetable soup in the fall. I loved it.

[badger]

do you blanch and peel the tomatoes or do you keep the skin on? I guess when you roast they'll probably come detached on their own anyways? I'll have to give this a try.

[Eden]

I might be a bit of a weirdo, but I like tomato skin... I never peel tomatoes. In my soup recipe they dry up a lot like 1/2 way sundried tomatoes, then I throw them in the blender. The skins gets chopped up so much you'd never even know they were in there. Anyway a lot of the good stuff in tomatoes is in and just under the skin - you are throwing away lots of good vitamins if you get rid of it.