Urban gardener and cookbook author Luay Ghafari from Toronto finds joy in cooking with freshly harvested garden ingredients. As tomato season comes to a close, Ghafari shares his slow-roasted tomato sauce recipe. The process involves slow-roasting peak-season tomatoes with herbs and aromatics to enhance their natural sweetness, resulting in a versatile and flavorful sauce that can be used in various dishes like pasta and pizza.
For this roasted tomato sauce, you will need 2.27 kg of Roma or paste tomatoes, garlic cloves, onion, sage leaves, thyme sprigs, salt, pepper, and olive oil. The preparation involves slicing the tomatoes, arranging them on a sheet pan with garlic, onion, herbs, salt, pepper, and olive oil, then roasting them in the oven until slightly browned. After cooling, blend the roasted ingredients to your desired consistency, season with salt and pepper, and simmer if needed to thicken the sauce.
The final sauce can be served immediately over pasta or stored refrigerated for up to 5 days, or frozen for 6 to 12 months. This recipe yields 5 cups of the roasted tomato sauce, a perfect way to savor the taste of summer year-round.