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.

[Tuckervill]

It should work with canned tomatoes. I'd use whole ones if you can find them. The roasting just carmelizes the sugars in them and makes it sweeter. Fresh is always better, of course.

Whoever doesn't want to light the oven....how about doing it outside on your fire pit in a cast iron Dutch oven?

Karen

[Eden]

Slow roasted tomato soup is one of my favorites! Don't add the stock and it's a perfect consistency for sauce.

The recipe I follow just uses tomatoes, halved or quartered, tossed with a bit of salt pepper and olive oil roasted in a 250 oven until they are quite shriveled and even black in small spots. YUM!

Carrots done this way make a fabulous soup too.

[Trek420]

Roasting? That's good but try grilling the vegies next

[Becky]

Whoever doesn't want to light the oven....how about doing it outside on your fire pit in a cast iron Dutch oven?

Hmmm....that might work! I may have to give that a whirl....

[OakLeaf]

There's an idea.

Make sure it's an ENAMELED cast iron oven, though.

Tomatoes need to go in a non-reactive pan, because they're so acid. Otherwise, you'll wind up with iron-flavored tomato sauce and a pan that needs to be re-seasoned.

An enameled steel broiler pan would work too - probably better, since the tomatoes would be in a shallower layer.

[Becky]

There's an idea.

Make sure it's an ENAMELED cast iron oven, though.

Tomatoes need to go in a non-reactive pan, because they're so acid. Otherwise, you'll wind up with iron-flavored tomato sauce and a pan that needs to be re-seasoned.

An enameled steel broiler pan would work too - probably better, since the tomatoes would be in a shallower layer.

Crap, good point....my dutch oven is not enameled...

[Tuckervill]

I'd do it in my non-enameled pans, because they've been cooked in so much on very hot fires that there is nothing but patina on them.

The iron goes into your bloos, and that's a good thing!

Karen