Tomato Sauce

I'm in love with my tomato garden because the harvest has been so bountiful. I had at least 50 tomatoes from the most recent harvest and I had to make something with them before they all went to waste. Making homemade tomato sauce has been a constant recipe lately in my kitchen because it is so easy to prepare. I fell in love with this AB recipe because roasting the tomatoes gives it a rich and complex flavor and it truly heightens the tomato sauce. Also the addition of the onions, garlic and the fresh herbs makes the tomato sauce a tad more velvety and richer as well.

The original recipe had used white wine and oregano and thyme and I did prepare that version as well on a previous batch of tomato sauce. I thought about many ways to tweak this recipe to my liking. Making homemade tomato sauce allows me to experiment and relish the fruits of my summer tomato garden. Enjoy!

Tomato Sauce
Adapted from Alton Brown
Printable Recipe
Ingredients:
24 San Marzano tomatoes, halved (Or Roma/Plum tomatoes)
¼ cup olive oil
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 medium yellow onion, cut into quarters
1 medium red onion, cut into quarters
4 to 6 garlic cloves, smashed
2 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
¼ cup basil leaves, chiffonade
1 ½ cups red wine
Tools needed: Food Mill - this is the one I have and love.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a large bowl, add the tomato halves, quartered onions and garlic cloves. Drizzle olive oil to cover tomato mixture, and season with salt and pepper and chopped rosemary. Mix well until everything is lightly coated.

Place tomato mixture in two large baking sheet or jelly roll pans - make sure to place tomato halves cut side up. Bake tomatoes for 1 hour. Midway through cooking time, check on tomatoes and rotate the tomato pans. Then after 1 hour, turn the oven to 400 degrees and bake for another 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.

Process the tomatoes through a food mill using a coarse steel plate over a medium sized dutch oven.

Toss any tomato skins, or onions/garlic cloves that doesn't get grounded down. Add red wine and basil leaves, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Preserve tomatoes if you like - this is my preferred method using Ball canning. Use tomato sauce over your favorite pasta.

Yield: 6 to 7 cups of tomato sauce

Review: This is such a great and aromatic tomato sauce and the red wine gives it a deeper flavor versus white wine. I preserved at least 3 jars from this harvest of tomatoes. From the looks of my tomato plant, it's almost near the end and I probably have at least 20 more tomatoes to go before it's done for the season. I'm truly enjoying the fruits of my labor and can't wait for the last batch of tomatoes. More tomato sauce to come!


Tomato