The Local Feed on Roasting Tomatoes

This week on The Local Feed on WYCE we are talking about roasted tomato sauce. Listen above or here. Or, read it below.

Tomato season is at its height as school starts up again in Michigan. But, it will end abruptly when the first hard frost hits the farmland – often in early October.

You can preserve the tastes of summer in a sauce even if you don’t have canning equipment. Roasting tomatoes in oil will make a simple, yet delicious sauce that is frozen instead of canned.

Just wash a few pounds of meaty tomatoes and cut them into large chunks. Place them in the bottom of a 9 x 13 baking pan. Cut a head of local garlic into chunks and toss them in. Add shallots or onions or both – whatever you are able to get your hands on. Then, stir in a few handfuls of fresh herbs. I use rosemary, LOTS of basil, thyme, and oregano.

Then, pour in a good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil. I add enough so that it starts peeking between the tomatoes. This way the sauce has a more concentrated tomato flavor. But, if you want a sauce that is mostly oil, you can just keep going with it.

Bake this luxurious mixture in the oven at 300 degrees for at least a couple of hours until the tomatoes become concentrated. Pour into glass jars and freeze.

Serve it over pasta or dip some hearty locally baked bread in it – and enjoy the summer memories.

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