Slow Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

[ElainaA]

I posted this recipe last year (or the year before?) in the dinner thread. I have been asked to re-post it here so it is easier to find. I'm glad so many people like it.

 

Slow Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

 

1/2 cup olive oil, divided            1 large red or yellow onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced            18 basil leaves, sliced plus 1/4 c. basil, sliced

1/8 t. red pepper flakes            50 (or more) cherry tomatoes

1 t. salt                    2 t. sugar

 

 

Preheat oven to 250.

 

Heat 1/4 c.olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender - about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 18 basil leaves and red pepper flakes.

 

Place cherry tomatoes in roasting pan large enough to hold tomatoes in a single layer. Sprinkle with sugar and 1 t. salt. Spoon onion mixture over tomatoes and drizzle with remaining  1/4 c. olive oil. Roast tomatoes in preheated oven 3 hours, stirring once. Serve toped with 1/4 cup basil leaves.

 

(This recipe is wonderful but, I think, overly precise. Exactly 18 basil leaves? 50 tomatoes? I use what amount looks good. I also like it with a mix of different colored tomatoes.)

Edited July 13, 2017 by ElainaA (log)

[ElsieD]

@ElainaA  at the risk of sounding like a total idiot, what do you use this tomato sauce for?  I like all the components and would think it would be a tasty sauce when local cherry tomatoes show up.  Would you just use it wherever a tomato sauce is called for?

[ElainaA]

@ElsieD  I use it over pasta. I could imagine other uses. Maybe with grilled chicken? Or fish? 

[Smithy]

I use it over pasta, with and without a protein such as chicken or lamb. I also use it to fill out/spice up pilafs with said proteins. I think I've even used it with chicken and no rice or pasta.

[blue_dolphin]

Grilled, rustic bread, rubbed with garlic and topped with some of this sauce (give it a rough chop if a lot of the tomatoes are still intact) - Mmmmm!  

[Shelby]

I used it for pizza sauce the other day.  Excellent.

[kayb]

I adopted this recipe last year and used it with Romas for a big batch of tomato sauce that I canned. I've been using it all winter and spring in assorted applications -- pasta sauce, pizza sauce, in soups and stews, pureed as a sub for tomato sauce in any recipe. I love it and will assuredly make more this year. I may perhaps have gotten overenthusiastic in my measuring of garlic in it, but then again, I have had no vampire visitations....

[blue_dolphin]

I was looking through old posts to see how else I've used this sauce - it's great on polenta!  

I also found some photos I'd posted earlier and thought I'd repeat them here.

Everything ready to go into the oven:

 

All roasted:

 

On pasta with zucchini:

 

On pasta with broccoli, kalamata olives and sous vide chicken breast:

 

On toasted bread with white beans

 

On polenta:

 

Edited June 27, 2017 by blue_dolphin
to remove a wrong photo (log)

[ElainaA]

All these comments are making me anxious for my cherry tomatoes to be ripe! (Right now I barely have a few blossoms much less tomatoes.)

Edited June 27, 2017 by ElainaA (log)

[ElsieD]

11 minutes ago, ElainaA said:

All these comments are making me anxious for my cherry tomatoes to be ripe! (Right now I barely have a few blossoms much less tomatoes.)

 

 

I can't wait for ripe tomatoes either.  I am SO making this.  Thanks for all the suggestions.

Edited June 27, 2017 by ElsieD
Added the last line. (log)

[kayb]

Made a deep-dish pie plate full of this today.

 

 

[ElsieD]

20 minutes ago, kayb said:

Made a deep-dish pie plate full of this today.

 

 

 

Do you have local tomatoes already? 

 

 

 

[kayb]

3 minutes ago, ElsieD said:

 

Do you have local tomatoes already? 

 

 

 

In my back yard! Not getting a lot yet, but the cherries are always the first to ripen.

 

We've had local tomatoes at the Farmers Market since early June. They were early this year.

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by kayb (log)

[ElsieD]

Grrrr. I still have another month to wait before even the cherry tomatoes are ready, never mind the regular ones.  Sigh.

[ElainaA]

@kayb Sometimes I am so jealous of all of you in warmer growing zones!

Edited June 28, 2017 by ElainaA (log)

[Jacksoup]

I've made this with all yellow cherry tomatoes and my boyfriend gardener loved it so much he planted 25 yellow cherry tomato plants this year.  Just served it over pasta with Parmesan.  It was incredibly delicious.  Over polenta is a great idea.

Edited June 28, 2017 by Jacksoup
Add (log)

[Shelby]

I went back and found my pictures, too  .  I remember that I didn't measure precisely but it turned out soooo gooooooood.

 

Before baking

 

 

After

 

 

You can't tell from the picture, but this was a HUGE pot.

[lindag]

I am SO going to make this!!!

Thanks to ElainaA for posting!

Edited June 28, 2017 by lindag (log)

[kayb]

On 6/27/2017 at 7:55 PM, ElainaA said:

@kayb Sometimes I am so jealous of all of you in warmer growing zones!

 

I love it from March/April until about early July. July and August are not quite so much fun. Fall is gorgeous, and winter is mild, which is key for me, as I do NOT do cold very well. We will have one decent snow every two or three years, and it only stays on the ground a couple of days before melting; maybe 10 days all told below freezing all winter, and those not all in a clump. There are, of course, exceptions to that average.

 

In the southern part of Arkansas, all my herbs except for basil, tarragon and marjoram would overwinter. There were growers who used greenhouses who had salad greens (and provided them to all the good restaurants in the Little Rock area) all winter, and used only minimal heat during January and February. And the Amish growers who started their tomatoes in "hoop houses" (big plastic Quonset hut looking creatures) would have ripe tomatoes starting in February. Just moving half the depth of the state north made a big difference; I hated to leave those tomatoes.

[lindag]

On 6/26/2017 at 0:43 PM, ElainaA said:

I posted this recipe last year (or the year before?) in the dinner thread. I have been asked to re-post it here so it is easier to find. I'm glad so many people like it.

 

Slow Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

 

1/2 cup olive oil, divided            1 large red or yellow onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced            18 basil leaves plus 1/4 c. basil, sliced

1/8 t. red pepper flakes            50 (or more) cherry tomatoes

1 t. salt                    2 t. sugar

 

 

Preheat oven to 250.

 

Heat 1/4 c.olive oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender - about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in 18 basil leaves and red pepper flakes.

 

Place cherry tomatoes in roasting pan large enough to hold tomatoes in a single layer. Sprinkle with sugar and 1 t. salt. Spoon onion mixture over tomatoes and drizzle with remaining  1/4 c. olive oil. Roast tomatoes in preheated oven 3 hours, stirring once. 

 

(This recipe is wonderful but, I think, overly precise. Exactly 18 basil leaves? 50 tomatoes? I use what amount looks good. I also like it with a mix of different colored tomatoes.)  

I don't have a garden so I'm just using the grocery store product but they'll be good anyway.

 

 

I have this in my CSO right now.  I got 30 ozs. ( well over 50, closer to 75)  of the tomatoes into the CSO pan.  They've been roasting for about an hour so far and the aroma is intoxicating!  

I'll use some of the sauce over meatballs with thin spaghetti for dinner and I'll freeze the rest for another day.

i don't have garden tomatoes, just the ones from the grocery but I'm sure they'll be good anyway.

 

Edited July 5, 2017 by lindag (log)

[kayb]

Summer's second batch of it is cooling on the stove as I type. A week's worth of Romas and cherries nets me about two or three pints, which get frozen.

 

[lindag]

On ‎7‎/‎5‎/‎2017 at 2:21 PM, lindag said:

 

I have this in my CSO right now.  I got 30 ozs. ( well over 50, closer to 75)  of the tomatoes into the CSO pan.  They've been roasting for about an hour so far and the aroma is intoxicating!  

I'll use some of the sauce over meatballs with thin spaghetti for dinner and I'll freeze the rest for another day.

i don't have garden tomatoes, just the ones from the grocery but I'm sure they'll be good anyway.

 

 

 

I made up my dinner with the above mentioned sauce , meatballs and angel hair pasta.

I used about one third of the sauce and the total made up more than I needed for dinner.

I saved the rest in the fridge for the next day.  Well!!!  It was even more flavorful the next night! 

What a great dish.  I'm glad to have the rest in the freezer for another day.

[blue_dolphin]

I just put this half sheet pan into the oven and am looking forward to a few hours of delicious aromas ...

No, I did NOT count all the tomatoes 

 

Edited to add the 'after' photo:

Edited August 16, 2017 by blue_dolphin (log)

[kayb]

The aroma is, indeed, delightful. Doesn't hold a candle to the taste, though.

 

FYI: You can whiz it up in the blender and it makes FINE pizza sauce.

 

[Anna N]

I was hoping to find tomatoes at a reasonable price at the supermarket but unless I was prepared to buy a whole bushel  they remained an expensive proposition.  Still hoping because I would love to make some more of that sauce.