Oven roasted tomatoes

This may be thinking ahead a bit, but this technique is great for the coming months when we are blessed with a bounty of great seasonal tomatoes. Nothing beats the taste of a local tomato picked at the height of its ripeness, and many people get busy canning these harvest tomatoes to enjoy them all year round.

This is another easy technique, and will give you unbelievable depth and complexity of flavor when you use them to make a quick pasta sauce. These can also be frozen well and stored until needed.

Oven slow roasted tomatoes

Preheat your oven to low (just over 200 Fahrenheit is about right).

Take all of your tomatoes and cut them in half length wise (top to bottom)

Lightly oil or spray oil as many baking sheets as you can fit in your oven.

Place the tomatoes cut side up on the pan, and place as many pans as you can in the oven. It works better if you leave a little space between the tomatoes, so that the hot air can flow around them, but it will still work if you pack a lot in, it will just take longer.

Bake them all day, until they are shriveled up and about half way to sun dried tomatoes looking. They will have shrunk to about a quarter of their original size.

Store them in the fridge until needed, or for longer storage, pack in bags in appropriate serving sizes and freeze.

These tomatoes have slowly sweetened and concentrated the available flavors during the slow oven roasting, and will add a great depth a flavor to any dish. Sun dried tomatoes will also give a depth of flavor, but their taste is deadened and dried in comparison to the rich flavor hues of these oven roasted tomatoes.

A great five minute tomato sauce for pasta using oven roasted tomatoes

1 small onion chopped

olive oil

about two heaping cups of oven roasted tomatoes

2 cloves of garlic minced

a handful of torn basil leaves (you can omit these if you don't have any)

salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Heat a couple of Tbls of olive oil in a good heavy frying pan over medium heat; when hot add the onions and sauté until softened, about five minutes.

Meanwhile, take the skins off the tomatoes. They will peel of really easily.

After the onions are softened, add your garlic, and after about 30 seconds, toss in all the tomatoes and any tomato juices.

Add a ladle full of pasta water, and turn the heat up high. Boil vigorously stirring for a minute or so, stirring the tomatoes to break them up.

When the sauce has thickened enough (really a minute or two should do it) you are done. Throw in your torn basil leaves, add a couple of turns of cracked pepper and salt to taste.

Add your drained pasta right to the sauce and toss to coat. If it looks too dry (it will continue to dry a bit as the starch from the pasta absorbs the liquid) add another splash of pasta water.

This is a really flavorful sauce, and is ready in less time than it takes to boil your dried pasta. Too many quick recipes sacrifice quality for speed, but this will never disappoint.

Once you have a store of these oven roasted tomatoes on hand, you’ll find yourself using then in place of canned tomatoes often!