We have officially reached the point of being overrun with tomatoes. Never a bad thing, I just need to be on the ball to get them all taken care of in a timely fashion. A person needs to either freeze, can or dry tomatoes for storage. I sit on the fence when it comes to canning due to the BPA present on the canning lids. Because there's BPA in the lids, I do minimal canning until I can afford to buy a ton of Tattler Reusable lids. The Tattler lids are fairly expensive to begin with, however the over $20/dozen to have them shipped from the states to Canada is the major deterrent.
Freezing tomatoes and tomato sauce could not be easier. To freeze whole tomatoes you simply blanch to remove the skins, or not, and freeze. Not too many people bother removing the skins when the tomatoes are going to used in recipes for cooking and, BONUS, the skins will also slip off fairly easily after being frozen. Throw them in the freezer whole or make tomato sauce on the stove-top or in the oven, as I did here.
To make oven roasted tomato sauce you simply rough chop your tomatoes, I quartered mine, onions, garlic and whatever other veggies you want to use, celery, peppers, etc. Toss the veggies with salt, pepper and any combination of oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary or other herbs like fennel, cilantro etc. Roast at 400 degrees for several hours, at least 4 or 5, until everything has all softened together into a nice sauce consistency. After you have removed the sauce from the oven and it has cooled, THEN you add your cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil. Heating good quality oils destroys their delicate fats. Then this can be frozen in portions or in bulk. I'll be making huge batches of this the next few days, my house will smell amazing, freeze it in portions and use it over the next few months. Makes a great base for a quick or not-so-quick lunch/dinner any day of the week.
I use plum tomatoes for sauces, they're the best!
Edited to Include: You can also add handfuls of kale, spinach or other greens to this after it comes out of the oven to wilt into the sauce. Yum!
I never knew that the way to make successful from scratch spaghetti sauce is to use the oven. And, not being a super cooker - I'm more of a slow cooker myself - I wouldn't have thought to try it. Mine always looks pink and extra bubbly and thin because I make it on the stove top - the oven probably helps things thicken up in there.
ReplyDeleteYou're kind of my hero smart foodie over there on the east coast.
I've made it on the stove-top before, it takes almost an entire day though.
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