The Culinary Works

Here is a really easy way to make your own roast tomato sauce.  The nice thing about this method is that you have complete control over what goes into your sauce.   All that we need is a pile of washed tomatoes, a large lightly-oiled pan, a sharp knife and your oven.

To start, let’s preheat your oven to 250 degrees.   This temperature will allow the tomatoes to slow roast without over cooking or browning.  The goals is a bright and fresh sauce so that you have more options for use.  You will see what I am talking about later in the article.

You will want to cut all of the tomatoes in half and place them in a layer in your oiled pan.  In this project, I used a variety of tomatoes in many sizes:  I cut and placed the smaller tomatoes on the bottom of the pan, and then placed the larger ones on top.  The great thing about about oven roasting is that all of the tomatoes need to be completely ripe to get a great sauce.

Once you have placed all your cut tomatoes in the pan as above, you are almost ready to go into the preheated oven.  At this point, think about seasonings.  You can add salt and the herbs or seasonings of your choice.  You can even add a little olive oil.  If you are not sure how you will use your fresh tomato sauce once you are done, then season them later as I normally do.

The next step is to pop the pan in the oven and check on them in about two hours.  You will know the tomatoes are done if they have shrunk and look a little shriveled, like the picture to the right.  Once the tomatoes are done roasting, take the pan out of the oven and set it on your kitchen counter to cool, until the tomatoes are warm to the touch.

Next, I like to separate the skins from the sauce.  The tomate skins have a little bitterness in them, so your sauce is much sweeter without them.  I prefer to use a food mill to juice my tomatoes because it removes almost all of the the skin.  Alternatively, you can strain out the tomato juice with rubber spatula and strainer, or simply blend your roast tomatoes in a food processor and not worry about the skins.

However you get there, your final product will be fresh, beautiful and ready for any tomato dish. Use the sauce in Tomato Soup, your favorite spaghetti sauce  or make the freshest and tastiest Bloody Mary's you have ever had!

Enjoy!

(Special thanks to my assistant photographer Sam on this project!)