This is a really special tomato sauce. It can be served on top of buttered pasta or used as a pizza sauce. The recipe yields 4 cups. I roasted a red bell pepper with the tomatoes, but a peeled and chopped carrot would have worked just as well. For maximum sweetness try roasting both red pepper and carrot with the tomatoes.
ROASTED TOMATO SAUCE
1+2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8 cups tomatoes, cut in half [large ones quartered]
salt and pepper to taste
1 onion
4 garlic cloves
1 red bell pepper
3-4 sprigs of fresh parsley
2 Tbsp chopped basil leaves
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp golden brown sugar
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Add the 1 Tbsp olive oil to a large baking dish.
• Wash the tomatoes, removing stems and centers. Cut out any blemish.
• Cut each tomato in half or quarter them if the tomatoes are large.
• Measure 8 cups of cut tomatoes into the baking dish. Make sure the tomatoes are in one layer for maximum roasting.
• Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and pepper.
• Peel the onion and the garlic cloves.
• Coarsely chop them and add to the tomatoes.
• Wash and coarsely chop the bell pepper and add them to the tomatoes.
• Wash several sprigs of fresh parsley and add these to the tomatoes.
• Sprinkle the top with a selection of fresh and dry herbs.
• Drizzle the top with the remaining olive oil.
• Bake for 1 hour.
• Remove from the oven and with a slotted spoon transfer the tomato mixture to a food processor.
• Pour the remaining liquid through a fine sieve into a pot.
• Boil the liquid until it reduces to a jam like consistency. Keep an eye on it, this won’t take long and if you forget about it can burn quite easily.
• Add the reduced liquid and 1 tsp of golden brown sugar to the tomato mixture and puree until smooth.
