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How To make roast tomato sauce
Knock up a batch of intensely flavoursome roasted tomato sauce and use it to produce a variety of dishes.
Top tips
- If you prefer a more refined sauce, use a stick blender or a food processor to whizz the cooked tomatoes until smooth.
- Give the sauce a Middle Eastern flavour by adding a broken cinnamon stick to the tomatoes before cooking and replacing the basil with fresh coriander.
- When choosing, look for firmish, fragrant tomatoes with an intense colour. Tomatoes still attached to the vine often have a sweeter flavour. Roast a mixture of cherry, medium, plum and vine to give a great flavoured sauce.
Roast tomato sauce
Makes about 500ml (serves 6 with pasta)
Takes 15 minutes to make, about 1 hour to roast
Use this sauce on pasta, pizzas, with roasted fish, diluted with stock or as a soup…the possibilities are endless!
Freeze: Divide the cooked, cooled sauce between freezer bags. Seal, label with the date and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost in the fridge overnight before using, or you can heat gently in a pan until bubbling, if you’re short of time.
1kg ripe medium tomatoes, halved
4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 tsp caster sugar
2 tbsp sun-dried tomato purée
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Handful fresh basil leaves, torn
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan170°C/ gas 5. Spread the tomatoes out, cut-side-up, in a large roasting tin. You may need to use 2 tins if they won’t fit in a single layer. Press the chopped garlic pieces into the tomato flesh to submerge slightly, sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper and dot with sun-dried tomato purée. Drizzle with olive oil and roast for about 1 hour, until soft and slightly charred in places.
2. Scatter with the basil leaves, crushing the tomatoes down with a fork as you do to form a sauce. Cool and keep, covered, in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze (see delicious. tips, above).
Confit tomatoes
For a more intense and sweeter flavour, prepare the tomatoes for the
basic sauce, then roast for 2½ hours at 150°C/fan130°C/gas 2 until
reduced and concentrated.
Cool. Store in a jar, covered with olive oil,
in the fridge for up to 7 days. Use in salads or on bruschetta.
Roast garlic
Roasted garlic is much milder and sweeter than raw garlic.
To roast a garlic bulb, cut in half horizontally, drizzle with olive oil and wrap loosely in foil with a sprig of thyme. Roast at 180°C/fan160°C/gas 4 for 30 minutes, until soft.
Squeeze the garlic out of its skin to use it. Stir into the roasted tomato sauce or add to a creamy béchamel to use for lasagne.
Tomato-based dishes
Roast tomato soup
1. Dilute the finished tomato sauce (see main recipe) with 300ml hot vegetable stock and whizz in a blender until smooth.
2. Serve hot or chilled with a spoonful of fresh pesto drizzled over each of the 4 small or 2 large bowlfuls.
Spiced prawns
Serves 2
Ready in about 10 minutes
1. Fry 1 sliced onion in a little olive oil for 5 minutes, until golden.
2. Stir in 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger and ½ teaspoon each roughly crushed cumin and coriander seeds. After a minute or so, add ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, a pinch of crushed dried chillies and 250g raw, peeled large prawns.
3. Stir for a couple of minutes until the prawns turn pink, then pour in half of 1 quantity (about 250ml) of the roast tomato sauce (see main recipe). Finish with a sprinkling of chopped coriander and serve with steamed rice.
0Try these delicious. pasta dishes
Stuffed pasta shells with roasted tomato ragu recipe
The stewing beef will become meltingly tender and is simple to shred
with some forks for an authentic ragù. Unused or leftover ragù sauce
will keep covered in the fridge for 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.
Cherry tomato and chilli pasta recipe
This rustic, vegetarian pasta dish is so easy to prepare. It's also the perfect recipe to make in bulk and freeze. |