Description
Ripe summer tomatoes are slowly roasted until deeply caramelized and concentrated into an intensely flavorful tomato sauce. The prep takes just minutes and the oven does all the work. Delicious tossed with pasta and grated Parmesan or Pecorino.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- About 14 cups cut-up fresh tomatoes, any variety, shape or size
- 2 yellow onions, halved, cut into wedges, layers separated
- 1 red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled and thickly-sliced
- 2 cups water
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more, to taste
- 1 large sprig of basil, stem and all plus basil leaves set aside as a topping
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Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Prepare the sauce: Add the tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, garlic, water, olive oil, salt and basil to a large roasting pan. Toss everything together.
- Roast for 3½–4 hours, stirring about once every hour, until most of the liquid has evaporated and the tomatoes and onions are dark, concentrated and caramelized. A little browning around the edges is fine. If the vegetables are getting too dark before most of the liquid has evaporated, lower the oven temperature to 375°F.
- Finish the sauce: Leave the sauce chunky or purée everything with an immersion blender until you reach your desired texture.
- To serve with pasta: This recipe makes enough sauce to generously sauce 1 pound of pasta. Cook the pasta in well-salted water and reserve about 1 cup of the pasta cooking water before draining. Add the cooked pasta to the sauce and toss over medium heat, adding a little pasta water if needed, to thin the sauce. Taste and season with additional salt if needed. Serve with grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano.
Notes
- Tomatoes — Cut large tomatoes into eighths, medium tomatoes into quarters, and small tomatoes in half. Aim for about 14 cups of cut-up tomatoes, but there's no need to be exact — if you have a few extra tomatoes, go ahead and add them. It's difficult to give an exact weight because tomatoes vary so much in size and variety, but if you're buying tomatoes for this recipe, I'd aim for about 7 pounds. Any variety will work, and there's no need to peel or seed them.
- Pan — Choose a large roasting pan or even a very large cast iron skillet if you have one. The idea is to maximize the surface area so as many tomatoes as possible are directly exposed to the intense heat of the oven and can brown and caramelize.
- Sauce Texture — This sauce is intentionally very thick and concentrated. Leave it chunky or purée it with an immersion blender for a smoother sauce.
- Make Ahead, Storage and Freezing — The sauce can be refrigerated in a covered container for up to 4 days or frozen for up to 3 months. I recommend freezing it thick and concentrated, then adjusting the consistency with a little water after reheating, if needed.
- Nutrition Information — We do our best to calculate nutrition values using an online nutrition calculator called Nutrifox. Our nutrition information should only be used as an approximation.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 4 hours
- Method: Roasting