Weekly Dish

With seasonal tomatoes still a few months away, I find myself longing for that sweet, fresh taste of summer that you really can’t get from anything else. Here in Louisiana, down in Plaquemines parish, the Creole tomatoes are the ones that get top ratings. A vendor at the local farmer’s market offers fall and spring Creole tomatoes–grown in a hothouse I think–and to tell the truth, they aren’t half bad. They certainly beat the heck out of those watery, mealy ones at the grocery.

But they still aren’t summer tomatoes.

This recipe is one of the ways I tide myself over until the summer ones arrive. Tomato sauce has been a staple in my weekly cooking since I’ve had a kitchen of my own, and this recipe has been tweaked and tweaked until I could make it in my sleep. The sauce is super-easy and so versatile, but the basic premise of roasting the tomatoes for a long time and using plenty of Kosher salt to draw out their juices is really the crux of the preparation.

And believe me, when summer tomatoes arrive, this sauce will taste even sweeter.

Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce

3-4 large tomatoes, chopped

Olive oil to coat

Kosher salt–probably about a tablespoon

Cracked black pepper

1 large yellow onion, chopped

4-5 cloves garlic, chopped

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, or chopped if you want the texture

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Arrange the tomatoes on foil-lined baking sheets in a single layer. Drizzle olive oil onto the sheets, and then toss with your hands to make sure all the pieces are coated with oil. Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for about 45 minutes, until they shrivel and begin to blacken around the edges.

Meanwhile, heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan (this will hold all of the sauce, so use a big one). Add the chopped onion and garlic and cook over medium heat until very soft, but not brown–about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. If they soften before the tomatoes are done, turn the heat off. When the tomatoes are done, us a spatula to scrape them, with their juices and the black bits crusted on the baking sheet, into the pan with the onion and garlic. Turn the heat back up to medium, and stir, pressing the tomatoes with the back of your spoon to crush them. Add the canned tomatoes, and simmer this mixture for about 20 minutes.

Varations:

• For a richer, silkier sauce, you can swirl in a couple of tablespoons of butter at the end.
• Red wine adds another layer of depth too: turn the heat up on the onions and garlic and dump in about a half a glass to deglaze the pan before adding the tomatoes.
• You can use chopped tomatoes to keep the chunky texture, or crushed tomatoes for a smoother sauce. You can also put the whole thing through the food processor or blender if a smooth texture is what you’re after.
• Portabello mushrooms add an earthy flavor and substance I like if you’re serving the sauce over pasta–you can either add them to the onion-garlic saute, or roast them with the tomatoes. They won’t take as long to cook, about 15-20 minutes.

Ways to use the sauce to follow!

This recipe is my contribution to ARF/5-a-day Tuesday over at Sweetnicks.

Posted: Tuesday, March 21st, 2006 at 6:33 pm Filed under: Basic Recipes, Sauces and Condiments, Vegetables. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.