Roasted Tomato Sauce

By Niecer

I love this recipe more than any other I know. It’s low key, easy, and highly versatile. You can roast it for as little as an hour, or up to three or four for a deep, caramelized flavor. A cup of cream makes it into a silky vodka style sauce; a pint of milk makes it the ultimate rainy day soup.

Ingredients

• 6-10 Roma tomatoes, root end trimmed away
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 bell pepper
• however much garlic you feel like peeling (2 heads if you’re not in a hurry)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 400°

Slice the tomatoes in half and place them on a sheet pan, cut side up. Use as many tomatoes as needed to cover the sheet pan entirely.

Peel the onion, slice it in half, and then each half into 1” slices; break up the onion pieces and scatter over the tomatoes.

Core and seed the bell pepper, slice and toss it on the sheet pan.

Leave the garlic cloves whole, just toss ‘em on with the tomatoes.

Drizzle the whole thing with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss it in the oven for about an hour, or until the onions have started to take on some color. The roasting time truly depends on how much time you’re willing to invest. Play with it and find what works for you.

When you’ve decided you’re done roasting, transfer the vegetables and juices to a pot, if you have an immersion blender, or to the bowl of a blender/food processor. Either way, blitz until smooth and creamy.

Season with additional salt and pepper and herbs, if you like. This sauce is incredibly lean on its own, so you may need another hearty drizzle of olive oil to bring out the full flavor of the dish.