Roasted Tomato Pasta Sauce

We're starting to be overrun with tomatoes!  The Health Kick and Classica tomatoes are heavy with fruit and they're ripening faster than I can deal with them.  Fortunately, they seem to not mind waiting!  I have a big basket of ripe plum tomatoes sitting on the counter and all are still in excellent condition in spite of the fact they've been there for several days now.

I decided to try making a roasted tomato pasta sauce and had all the ingredients for my first trial ready in the garden.  Roasting brings out sweetness and richness in the vegetables and roasting over time helps reduce the moisture content, resulting in a thick sauce.

I used about a dozen or so tomatoes in this first batch, 4 cloves of garlic, one onion and a few small carrots for sweetness to balance out the acid in the tomatoes.  A couple of sprigs of basil were added for the herb.

The tomatoes were quartered, onion peeled and quartered and the carrots added whole.  I smashed the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife to easily remove the dry skin, then roughly chopped them along with the basil.  The veggies and herbs were placed in a large ceramic lasagna pan - but any non-metal pan would do.  Finally I drizzled about 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil over them and tossed to combine.  Oven heated to 350F, the pan was popped in.

I stirred the veggies at 30 minute intervals and at 1 1/2 hours, judged that they were ready to process. At this point, I could have processed the sauce with my food mill, but decided to put the whole shebang in the food processor instead.  I hate to waste anything!

After a minute or so in the food processor, I added salt and pepper.  The resulting sauce is thick and delicious!  I can keep it in the fridge for up to 5 days, or freeze it in meal-sized batches.

This is a very versatile sauce and is limited only by your imagination.  For the sweetness, you can add the traditional carrot, or instead try a plum or pear.  I didn't have any ripe peppers for this batch, but that would be an excellent addition for another time.  And herbs can be changed up - try thyme or oregano.  Plum tomatoes aren't vital, and if all you have are lots of beefsteak or cherry tomatoes, by all means use them.  If the sauce is a bit thin, just cook it down a bit after blending.  The end result is the same; a delicious homemade sauce with no preservatives or ingredients you can't pronounce!  And you did it yourself!