Roasted Tomato Sauce

 

Growing tomatoes in Alaska is a whole different process than growing them in Virginia.  My whole life you plant tomatoes, they get ripe, and you pick them.  Not so in Alaska!  The growing season is incredibly short.  We started our tomatoes indoors in March, transplanted them to the outside garden in June and harvested 100% green tomatoes at the end of August.  Once you harvest them, you line every south facing windowsill you have with all of your tomatoes and let them turn red.  About half of ours had turned red mid-September.  I took those red ones and made this amazing roasted tomato sauce that is now my go-to.  It's so incredibly delicious and EASY.  No peeling and no canning.  I did the whole thing on a Sunday afternoon start-to-finish.  I used a medley of Alaska variety tomatoes (Polar Beauty and Arctic Beauty) along with a few plants of whatever Costco had.  It literally doesn't matter what kind of tomatoes you have so use whatever you've got!

I won't be listing any amounts of the ingredients because everyone's harvest will vary in size.  For reference, I used 2 large onions, LOADS OF GARLIC (I buy the pre-peeled bags from Costco and used about half a bag), and about 6-8 lbs. of tomatoes.  I used 9x13 baking dishes (I needed 3 of them to fit all of mine) but any oven safe pan will do.  I wouldn't use a cookie sheet because there's a ton of liquid released and it will spill over.  

Here's what you need:

tomatoes

peeled garlic cloves

coarse chopped onion

olive oil

balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

basil

Italian seasoning

sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Place the chopped onion , Italian seasoning, and peeled garlic cloves (however much you like) to the bottom of your baking dish or roasting pan.

Remove the core from the tomatoes and quarter them.  Place the tomatoes on top of the onions and garlic. I pack as many in as I possibly can.

LIBERALLY add sea salt, pepper, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar.  Toss everything together.

Roast in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until the skins are shriveled and starting to blacken.

Once it's finished, use a slotted spoon and transfer all of the veggies to a large stock pot.  Add as much fresh basil as you like.  (Hang onto the juices for a minute.  We might need them later.)

Use an immersion blender and blend the veggies until they are a smooth puree.  If the sauce is too thick for your liking, take some of the cooking liquid and ladle it in until you have the consistency you like.  If the sauce is too thin for your liking, simmer in the stock pot until it's reduced.  Give it a taste and add more salt, pepper, balsamic, olive oil, and/or sugar until it makes you happy.

**It is SUPER IMPORTANT that you DO NOT use this recipe and can this sauce.  This recipe IS NOT SAFE for canning.**

Allow the sauce to cool.  Place your sauce in jars, containers, or freezer bags and freeze.