roasted tomato sauce

It has been a good summer for tomatoes, I collected this homely looking bowlful from the garden the other day. I have been on a bit of a preserving binge lately, but sometimes you just want to do things the lazy way. (Besides, I have run out of jars!) This oven-roasted tomato sauce is perfect for when you don't have time to hang over a pot for an hour or two. I freeze it in ziplock bags and use it on pasta - it's that sort of tom sauce, not the old fashioned kind you would eat with chips. It's super easy to make. Just roughly chop enough tomatoes to fill a couple of roasting trays (I chop the bigger cores out but leave skins on, no need to be too fussy) then top each tray with 2 wedged onions, 6 garlic cloves, a teaspoon of salt, lots of black pepper, a stem of rosemary, a good drizzle of olive oil and a dollop of tom paste if you have it. Add chopped red capsicum, carrots and celery if you have them or want to make it more vegetable dense, but just the tomatoes is delicious for an intensely tomato flavoured sauce.

Throw the trays in the oven and roast at 160c for a couple of hours. I tend to do this in the evening then turn it off before bed and leave the trays in there overnight. Because the oven is on for such a long time you want to make a few trays full to make it worth your while, or maybe throw in a banana loaf or two at the same time?! After roasting for a few hours the tomatoes will caramelise beautifully, with all the liquid cooked out of them they will look like this...

Use a spatula to scrape the veges into the food processor, making sure you include the lovely sweet sticky bits stuck to the sides and bottom. Blitz it up, add a drizzle of olive oil or thin with a little water if too thick for your liking.

And there you have your starting point for many a delicious meal...although I love it simply tossed through spaghetti with lots of parmesan.