Tomato Sauce!
The CSA gave me 3 Roma tomatoes this week. What to do with them? Oh yeah, make a sauce. So I made a sauce, completely from scratch, with no real recipe, just riffing.
Neil’s Ersatz Roasted Tomato Sauce
- 3-4 Roma tomatoes, peeled (see note at bottom)
- 1 medium onion, sliced into half moons (there is a word for this, but I forget it)
- 1 cup broth (I used vegetable, chicken would work, really whatever you have on hand, but Tetra Pak > can in my experience
- 2-3 tablespoons redwine (I used some from a Merlot 1 hitter)
- 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped into thing strips
- 6 cherry tomatoes
- Red Pepper Flakes – to taste
- Salt, Pepper
- Olive oil
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the tomatoes in half crosswise, and scoop out the seeds and juice (not so much in Romas, yay). You could probably strain this and use it later, but I didn’t think of it. Chop about 2 of the halfmoons of onion into dice. Put the tomatoes cut side up on an baking sheet (spray it with Pam first). Sprinkle with the chopped onion, and salt. Put the half moons down. Drizzle olive oil over all of this. Bake for about 1 hour or until the tomatoes are nice and soft, and the onions are carmelized.
Put the broth and wine in a medium sized pot (and the strain juices that were pulled out above, if you have it), and add the tomatoes and onion. Blend with an immersion blender (or in a regular blender). Add red pepper flakes and pepper to taste. Heat on medium heat until just simmering, then lower heat to maintain the simmer and reduce by about 25%. Meanwhile quarter the cherry tomatoes and slice the basil. Add to the pot and serve over pasta.
NOTE: To peel tomatoes, heat water to boiling in a pot, and put ice water in a seperate bowl. Cut a small x as lightly as possible through the skin on the bottom of the tomatoes. Place in boiling water for at most 30 seconds, or until the skin starts to peel away. Move immediately to the iced water. After a minute in the ice water, peel the skin from the tomatoes, which should be quite easy at this point. It will stick a bit to the stem, but you’re going to have to core them anyhow.
I added a bit more red pepper than I should have last night, but it was pretty good. Here is a picture of it served over penne:
