When your up to your eyeballs in tomatoes.

[DaveFaris]

So I got this offer last spring from a garden mail order company that promised I could have all the tomatoes I'd ever want in my garden. They sent me 20 plants, including a variety of huge plum tomatoes, super sweet cherry tomatoes, a beefsteak variety, and early variety and a yellow heirloom. They really weren't kidding. Even though I gave half of the plants away, I'm still up to my eyeballs in tomatoes. A friend gave me this recipe and it's been great way to avoid letting the excess go to waste.

It's an incredibly easy recipe that fairly foolproof. The resulting rustic gravy is very versatile, very flavorful, and freezes well.

Aside from the tomatoes and the garlic, you can add or subtract any vegetable, depending on what you have too much of. Swap eggplant and/or zucchini in place of the carrots. Add some bell peppers if you have them.

The secret for the great flavor seems to be the balsamic vinegar and the roasting process itself.

(And your kitchen will smell great when you make it!)

Roasted Summer Bounty Sauce

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. In a large roasting pan, combine:

6 pounds tomatoes (plums are best, but some additional cherry tomatos will sweeten the sauce), cored and quartered

1½ c. coarsely chopped carrots (optional)

1½ c. coarsely chopped celery (optional)

1½ c. coarsely chopped onions

9 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped

6 T. balsamic vinegar

1 bay leaf

1½ t. each fresh thyme, oregano, basil, and parsley

1½ t. salt

1 T. freshly ground pepper

Roast all of these for 45 minutes or until everything is soft (I've left it going for almost 2 hours with no ill-effects). Remove the bay leaf and whatever herb stems you can find, and pulse in a food processor or blender or even a hand whizzer, but leave it slightly chunky. Freeze in 2 cup portions. Makes 2 quarts.

I'd be interested to hear ideas for any refinements anyone can come up with.

[Liza]

Congrats on hitting the mother lode of tomato harvests!

I've been making a similar sauce for awhile, but I only roast the tomatoes and the garlic. Sometimes I roast carrots. I core and split the tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, whatever fresh herbs I have around. If there's room on the pan, I throw in some garlic, or peppers or carrots.

After the tomatoes are giving up their juices (around 25-30 minutes), I dump them into a sauce pot in which I've sauteed more garlic, onions, and some rosemary. I like to deglaze the roasting pan to get the sticky bits - I use the heat from the sauce pot and put the roasting pan over like a lid.

[stellabella]

dave, that is a freakingly gorgeous photo. the recipe sounds great--do you can your tomatoes, too?

[DaveFaris]

I've tried canning pickles, with very mixed results. Dills came out mushy, but bread & butter pickles turned out well. I haven't tried canning the tomatoes or the sauce, since freezing it works so well.

[Jaymes]

Wow. Impressive.

Tomato season is pretty-much over down here Deep in the Heart, but I have hardcopied that, and am looking forward to trying it next year, when we Texans are "up to our eyeballs in tomatoes."

Thanks.

[Suvir Saran]

The secret for the great flavor seems to be the balsamic vinegar and the roasting process itself.

(And your kitchen will smell great when you make it!)

Thanks for the recipe and that great photograph.

Will have to make some this weekend.

Wow. This is very impressive!

[Suvir Saran]

dave, that is a freakingly gorgeous photo.  the recipe sounds great--do you can your tomatoes, too?

Stellabella,

Would you know how much time a sauce like that should be processed for?

Can I can it without having to buy pressure controlled canning equipment?

If I remember from reading other posts, you are a canner... Wondered if you would know the answer.

[Suzanne F]

Another WOW. Do you dry them? That way the storage takes up far less room. You can dry in the oven (overnight at the lowest temperature setting) or outside. I can't do "sun-dried," but the oven version works just fine.