Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

I have a new found love for tomato sauce.  This recipe is quick, easy and versatile.  You can use it for pasta sauce, pizza sauce, or as a base for a wonderful creamy soup.  Best of all you are controlling what you eat!  Say good-bye to high fructose corn syrup and hello flavor!   No more added sugar or other ingredients that you can't pronounce or know what they are.  Plus, this sauce packs a ton more flavor than the name brands we all have in our pantry for the sake of convenience!

You can tailor this sauce to include additional vegetables such as red or green bell pepper for a slightly different taste and additional nutrition.  The flavor will knock your socks off and the wonderful aroma you have wafting from your kitchen will have your family salivating!

I've always been a "from scratch" kinda cook. However, "from scratch" spaghetti sauce never included making the tomato portion of the sauce.  I have always seasoned up a can of tomato sauce and tomato paste to make my pasta sauce.  This oven roasted sauce is fresh and tasty.

I can only imagine how much better it will be when summer finally arrives and the tomatoes are fresh from my farmer's market along and the herbs fresh from my garden!  I suspect I'll be making big batches and freezing some for the long winter months!

Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

Yield:   4 Cups

Ingredients:

10 Roma tomatoes, halved
1 medium onion
8 cloves garlic
1 Tablespoon dried rosemary
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
4 bay leaves
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Add after roasting:

1/8 teaspoons red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon Truvia

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Line a baking sheet with foil.
Half the tomatoes and combine them with the remaining ingredients listed through and inclusive of the olive oil.   Toss with hands to mix the ingredients so everything is coated in the olive oil.

Dump the mixture onto the foil lined baking sheet.  Position tomatoes so they are cut side up and roast in the oven for 40 minutes.

When roasting is complete, remove from the oven, pick out the bay leaves and discard them.  Puree the roasted vegetables in a Vitamix or with an immersion blender (being careful with hot ingredients).  Add pureed ingredients to a heavy saucepan that is large enough to hold the puree.

Add the red pepper flakes, basil and sweetener.  Stir to mix.  Adjust seasonings as needed.  (I added additional salt, rosemary and thyme to my liking.)  As you can see from the photos, this makes nearly 4 cups of sauce.

Depending on roasting time, the veggies will be less juicy.  My sauce was a bit juicy and I will reduce it further on the stove.  You can extend the roasting time, but do so carefully, you don't want your garlic or other ingredients to scorch and give off a burnt flavor to your sauce.  I've done that and I prefer to error on the side of under roasting the veggies.

Use the sauce immediately with pasta, pizza sauce, or to make meatball subs.  Let your imagination be your guide.  I used half of the sauce, added in slices of leftover chicken sausage, zucchini sliced using a spiral slicer to resemble noodles and layered everything on a plate over arugula and topped it with a grating of fresh Parmesan cheese.

I used the remaining 2 cups of sauce mixed with 1/4 cup of heavy cream and 3/4 cup of whole milk and heated it through for a wonderful flavorful creamy tomato soup that I served with some provolone crisps.

.....and that's What's Cooking at Cathy's ~ Enjoy!