I know I said it before, but WOW has our garden given us a plethora of tomatoes!! I have 8 plants, all kinds – cherry, grape, Roma, regular. I was a bit overzealous with the planting, but I am so glad we did it! We go through a lot of tomatoes, tomato sauce, and marinara each week. Our numerous plants have given me the opportunity to preserve a lot of sauces and whole tomatoes for use in the future. Cherry tomatoes do not hold their texture when canned (from what I read), so I froze 6 pints of whole cherry tomatoes. I still had quite a bit of them every day! I found a recipe for Roasted Marinara Sauce and have made it three times – twice with almost all cherry tomatoes and once (today) with some cherry and a lot of Roma. I love the taste and how simple it is to make. I was able to use our garden onions (some white, some yellow, and some shallots), as well as our garden basil!
Roasted Marinara Sauce (my version)
10 cups cherry tomatoes, whole with just stems removed
3 medium size onions (or 5 shallots), quartered
10 garlic cloves, peeled
Olive oil
Sea Salt
Handful of fresh basil leaves
Divide tomatoes between two 9×13 baking pans. Add onions and garlic to both. Drizzle with the oil and generously salt. Roast at 425 degrees for 40 minutes. Let sit for 20 minutes, then strain out oil and juices (and save them). Add roasted veggies and garlic to blender and puree with basil leaves. Do same with second baking pan. Add puree to the reserved oil/juices. Stir thoroughly. Let cool completely. Divide into freezer bags or containers, label and freeze. (Or use for dinner that day….because it smells and tastes so good!)
I was able to get two full quart size freezer bags with this amount in the recipe. When I did Roma and cherry today, I got about 11.5 cups. Taste varies slightly with different type of tomato, but it is still delicious!
Enjoy!!
Life As Mom Knows It 