God bless Pat for this recipe! We used to can dozens of quarts of tomato sauce every year, but haven't canned a single one since we started roasting and freezing our tomatoes.
This sauce is great as is (chunky!) on crusty bread or over pasta, or blend it for pizza sauce or a smoother marinara.
See Roasted Tomato Salsa for a southwestern variation of this.
Per sheet pan:
- ~1 qt basil leaves
- 4-5 garlic cloves, whole or halved
- 6-8 large tomatoes, roughly wedged
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tsp salt
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Spread out the basil to cover a deep rimmed sheet pan, then scatter the garlic over the basil.
- Pack the pan loosely with tomatoes, skin side down.
- Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle salt over the tomatoes.
- Roast for 30 min, carefully rotate the pan, then roast for another 30 min. Rotate pan again, and then roast for another 20-30 minutes.
- Done when the juices have thickened and some of the tomatoes have browned/carmelized.
Makes 1 quart. Freezes well.
Notes:
- We roast in a convection oven, and the tomatoes sometimes form a "skin" as they roast. We prod them with metal tongs when we first rotate the pan to break this skin and release more juice.