Quick and easy roasted tomato sauce

After complaining about my slow ripening tomatoes last week on The Garden blog (the link is on the main page) I found myself faced with a glut of the damn things at the weekend- isn’t that always the way!?

So, in an attempt to be resourceful, I decided to make my own pasta sauce which we used for dinner last night. For a recipe which was made up on the spot, I must say it was delicious! I gently fried up half an onion and a clove of garlic until softened and caramelised which I then added to the sauce before mixing it through the pasta, but it’s delicious as is too. The sauce has a sweet, smoky quality about it, thanks to the natural sugars in the tomatoes and isn't at all vinegary like some shop bought ones can be.

If you too have grown some over-enthusiastic tomato plants this year or just fancy something different, give it a go. It could also be used as a base for a lasagne or would be nice stirred through rice for a lunchtime treat. It would jazz up roasted chicken breasts for an evening meal- serve with green salad, new potatoes or roasted Mediterranean-style veg, or can be frozen for use at a later date.

Ingredients

• Approximately 500-750gms of ripe tomatoes- try to use a mixture of varieties. I had beef tomatoes, tigerella, cherry and plum.
• 3tbsp good quality olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Big handful of fresh thyme (I used lemon thyme)
• 2-3 tbsp double cream

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C and find a big baking tray with sides (see the photos for rough sizing)
2. Wash the tomatoes and chop them into halves or quarters depending on their size, you may need to remove the cores from the beef tomatoes if they are still a little green.
3. Place cut side up in the baking tray so that they sit together snugly and drizzle over the olive oil.
4. Season and place the thyme sprigs over the top, don’t bother removing the leaves from the stalks.
5. Bake in the oven for 20 mins or until the tomatoes have gone all squidgy and caramelised in places. Remove and allow to cool for 15 mins.
6. Remove the thyme from the tray then pour all of the tomatoes and their juices into a blender. You can scrunch the thyme a little over the mouth of the blender to release some of the crispy leaves but don’t let the stalks fall in. Add the cream and blend until smooth.
7. Check the seasoning and divide the sauce up into pots for whenever it’s needed. It can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days.