Begin with garden-fresh, sun-ripened tomatoes of any and every variety. I usually plant some plum tomatoes for this, but by the end of the summer, I'm throwing all varieties into the pan. Clean the tomatoes and core them and put them in an 11X17 inch pan. Peel an entire BULB of garlic and scatter the cloves throughout the tomatoes. Douse with extra-virgin olive oil. Roast at 450 degrees for about a half an hour, until the whole house smells like summertime and the tomatoes are blistered. Pull the pan from the over and sprinkle with fresh, whole basil leaves.
Cover with foil and allow to cool until you can handle it comfortably. Carefully transfer everything (including the juices) to the blender. You'll have to bend in two batches. Whir it all together and pour it over hot pasta. This makes enough for 4 pounds of hearty pasta.
I usually cook two pounds to feed my family. So, the other half gets poured into a gallon size zippered freezer bag and then frozen flat on the freezer shelf. In the middle of winter, thaw, heat, pour and remember the summer!
OH this looks wonderful! My romas are just begining to get a tint of orange on them, I can't wait to make this! Thanks Elizabeth!
Posted by: Lisa | July 08, 2007 at 05:35 PM
I have never added whole garlic to my roasting tomatoes. I will try it. Thank you Clarice
Posted by: clarice | July 15, 2007 at 11:54 PM
Hi Elizabeth, I stumbled on your blog from the household notebook.com site. I tried this tomato sauce and it turned out great. We made and froze a few quarts and DH made a vegetarian lasagna (we are not vegetarians, I just wanted to emphasize the yummy sauce), with a fontina cheese sauce in the middle with the tomato sauce on the bottom and top along with the usual ricotta, some zucchini from our garden and purchased spinach, herbs from our herb garden. It was delicious. The tomatoes came from my 82 year old FIL's garden. Thank you for taking the time to post. It came at exactly the right time!
Posted by: Cheryl B. | October 14, 2007 at 11:33 PM