Oven Roasted Tomato Sauce

[Rockporter]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

Greg, Both versions look delicious -- the "before" one looks like a great tomato salad!

Maybe a glass baking dish would work better? I'm planning to try some later in the week.

I roast in my pans all the time, I line them with heavy duty foil and there isn't any problem with them getting ruined and the cleanup is real simple.

[kilroyscarnival]

This thread sparked my weekend project. I had a bunch of paste tomatoes all at one time for once, with the first set of Egyptians, the largest ones too, all coming ripe at once, and the last of the first wave of Big Ray's (1) and Super Italian (two small ones) that had managed to set fruit before that late Feb frost. More are coming but it'll be a while and they are smaller.

Anyway, I left the skins on and seeds in, and cut them into chunks, added some of the cherry toms and others, mixed in some fresh thyme, salt and pepper, a few garlic cloves, and some thinly sliced onion. I covered with foil, pierced to release some steam, and slow-roasted in my small convection-toaster oven in a packed 9" square heavy-duty cake pan. After two hours at about 325F, I removed the foil, and reduced heat to about 250, and roasted for another two hours.

The resulting product had concentrated a lot of the liquid and carmelized the onions and a bit of the tomato skin. Wanting to leave it rustic, I just put everything in the food processor and pulsed. It was a wonderful red color and the flavors were very tomato-y, but it needed some seasoning.

Last night, I took some of this concentrate (somewhere between a sauce and paste consistency), and added some fresh pureed tomato and garlic, a little red cherry pepper and red pepper flakes, and lots of fresh basil, along with mroe salt and pepper and a bit of some homemade chicken stock, and heated that in a saute pan. I had it with a bit of pasta and some baked chicken. Really good! I will definitely use this method again, though I might food-mill or strain the seeds and skin out. It doesn't bother me but I know it's not as presentation-quality.

I'm trying not to eat it all in one go!

[TomNJ]

I love oven roasted tomato sauce! Not sure it's easier to make than milling and boiling, but it sure tastes great!

Here are some photos from a few years ago before I had my Victorio mill, so I left the skins on and slipped them off after it cooled. Each dish has two layers of paste tomatoes with onions, garlic, and fresh basil & oregano in between, then sprinkled with salt and drizzled with EV olive oil. I put these through a food processor and froze the sauce, but nowadays I use my Victorio 250 mill with a pumpkin screen. What a machine!

TomNJ/VA

[kilroyscarnival]

Gosh, that looks wonderful! As far as ease, Tom, one of the things I thought was better was that in the oven, the heat was even and there was no scorching on the bottom, especially in my 'baby convection oven." It made it easier to slowly concentrate the flavors without worrying it was going to burn. I think this also improved the color. It was deep bright red, not browned.

I'm an America's Test Kitchen viewer on public television, and a lot of times they do things in the oven (their Sunday gravy, a great recipe for black beans) because you get more even cooking and don't risk burning the bottom. I may also try using my slow cooker, partly with the lid and partly (at the end) with a mesh screen on top to let the liquid cook off a little.

That is quite the food mill! Adding it to my wish list.

[Deborah]

Yum ! I'd like to steal both your sauces and have them with hunks of sourdough bread !

[Riceloft]

Making my second batch in a row with this method. So much simpler than the other methods I'd tried!

I used:

A mix of about 8 tomato varieties
1.5 TBS EVOO
1 Medium Onion
Garlic Powder
Fresh Oregano
Fresh Basil
Fresh Thyme

Delicious!

[newatthiskat]

I have been making roasted tomato sauce this season. Due to a move late in season my plants are still growing and have little green maters. I have bought a couple of boxes of tomatoes from a local farm and have made about 6 quarts of roasted tomato sauce so far. It is so much better than store bought stuff!

OH my gosh, I'm so glad I found this thread! I made this today with my measly 5 pounds of tomatoes (best tomato year yet here in the moldy, fungal-infected Pacific NW!) I could smell it cooking as I worked in the yard and the final flavor is just as good as the cooking aromas. 5 lbs yielded about 6 cups of sauce, some of which I will freeze if I don't eat it all in the next couple of days. Fingers crossed that our PNW weather holds and all the greenies ripen, I have to have more! Next year - WAY less squash, WAY MORE TOMATOES!!

[Tomato Beth]

I did find a spaghetti sauce pressure canning recipe that might work on the Presto Pressure Canner site: https://www.gopresto.com/recipes/canning/tomatoes.php . The recipe makes 9 pints. Now, if you don't have that many tomatoes or don't need that many pints of sauce, you can cut it back as long as all the proportions are cut back exactly the same. The key to safety with this recipe is to make sure not to exceed the recommended amounts of onion, pepper, and the (optional) mushrooms so that the pressure canning time is correct.
Since both the oven-roasted and stove-top cooked version are run through food mills, I can't imagine that the heating method to get to the final product makes a difference as long as the veggie proportions are followed to the letter due to their low-acid qualities. That being said, of course, the best recommendation is to still follow the canner recipe exactly.

[mensplace]

This year I have repeatedly made a lazy man's tomato and pasta. I simply use about six small tomatoes (cut down the middle into multiple sections), add the spices, a clove of whole garlic and olive oil and cook them on the stove top on low heat while covered. Then I do the pasta separately. Sometimes, I add a little water and do the pasta and tomatoes together, but the wife likes it more with the pasta done separately. After I cook the pasta, I add the tomatoes to the top and stir it into the pasta to continue heating together for a minute. Then a bit of cheese and/or panko on the top. The seeds and skin haven't hurt me yet. With a short cooking time I can't taste the seeds and that provides a bit of roughage. It all takes about twenty minutes and is a delicious, quick dinner. I really welcome quick and simple.

[Rockporter]

I like to add fresh tomatoes to all my cooking. I do make a tomato sauce for the freezer made with tomatoes only. This way I can decide what herbs and spices I want to add dependent upon what I am making. I like the simple too!

[mensplace]

Just curious. Have you ever frozen tomatoes whole with the skins on? I read that that is a simple way to preserve if you are going to use them for cooking.

I have a bunch of them in the freezer now; just put them in on a baking sheet until they froze solid, them popped them into freezer bags. Not sure how long they'll hold up, but pulled a few the other day for soup. The skins popped off with little effort and they were a nice addition to the soup pot!

[Tomato Beth]

I used frozen chopped tomatoes to make jambalaya last winter. It was fantastic, and no one minded the skins. MmmmmmMmmm!

[Darren]

Originally Posted by Ronaye

I have a bunch of them in the freezer now; just put them in on a baking sheet until they froze solid, them popped them into freezer bags. Not sure how long they'll hold up, but pulled a few the other day for soup. The skins popped off with little effort and they were a nice addition to the soup pot!

Exactly what I do & they're good for at least a year in the freezer. It's summer here now & I have about 6kg left in the freezer. I'll probably run out of last seasons in about 2 months & they'll be about a year old & will still roast up perfectly for sauce.