Roasted Tomato Sauce

By Kathryn Washburn Breighner

This sauce is amazing! We have an abundance of tomatoes from the garden and having canned dozens and dozens of quarts of tomatoes and pints of BBQ sauce over the weekend, I needed a new way to use them. Marty walked into the kitchen while I was putting a pan of tomatoes in to roast and he scoffed at me. After he tasted the sauce, he says he is unscoffing!

Most roasted tomato recipes call for Roma tomatoes but I only have heirlooms (16 kinds). I picked a variety this afternoon, cut them in wedges maybe 2" at the thickest, and tossed them in a bowl with olive oil and salt. I prepared enough to cover a cookie sheet. I put a Silpat baking sheet on the cookie sheet (saves clean up), added the tomatoes in a single layer and roasted at 285 degrees for 2 1/2 hours. I turned the tomatoes once while roasting. The tomatoes were reduced in size and just beginning to brown when I removed them from the oven.

While they were roasting, we brought in from the garden a medium green pepper and onion and a huge handful of basil, about 3/4 c. We sauteed the minced veggies in olive oil with a minced clove of garlic, basil and salt and pepper. I had 3/4 lb of cooked bacon leftover from last night's BLTs and crumbled the bacon and added to the sauce pan. To this we added the entire pan of roasted tomatoes, stirred the mixture and cooked on medium heat for about 10 minutes.

We served the sauce on cappellini but it would also be great on pizza, mixed with risotto, or served on warm polenta.

This was an absolutely outstanding tomato sauce--rich and flavorful. Now I know what to do with my tomatoes in the garden! This weekend's project will be making pots of the sauce (minus the bacon) and freezing.