Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce

A number of you have asked about our roasted tomato sauce. Well, here is the recipe we’ve used for years! I just love this one for eating right away, freezing, or even canning. What I like about it (besides the tasty roasted flavor!) is that there is no need to skin the tomatoes or squeeze out the seeds. If you use a bigger tomato and are left with a lot of juice in the pan, you can cook down the sauce on the stove top after you blend it up, or sometimes I strain that out and use it for things like Spanish rice.

Easy Roasted Tomato Sauce (adapted from Catherine Newman’s recipe)

Ingredients:
About 4 pounds Roma tomatoes (really any canning or slicing tomato will do)
Small onion
2-3 cloves garlic
A few leaves basil, oregano, or whatever fresh herbs you like (you can use dried herbs, but use only pinches as the flavor is concentrated compared to fresh)
A small bell pepper
Olive oil for drizzling
Salt, pepper, and sugar (if you like)

Halve tomatoes and lay facing down in your roasting pan (or a baking dish). Chop onion, garlic, and pepper, and throw those on top with your fresh herbs. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and sugar to taste. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake at 350 for about 2 hours. Blend with an immersion blender or in a regular blender.
This sauce is wonderful right away, but it freezes well, too! I have also canned it, but if you use the water bath technique, you need to add lemon juice or vinegar to bring up the acidity. You could also pressure can it.
It works great as a pasta sauce, and you can leave out the Italian herbs and use it as a base for chili, vegetable soup, Mexican dishes, etc. In fact, this is our base for anything that calls for tomato sauce!