Recipe Review - Roasted Vegetable Pasta Sauce

I *love* this recipe from An Oregon Cottage (I also *love* the blog, but that's another blog post).  This is the fourth or fifth time I've made it, and it's always a hit.  Today, we finally had enough tomatoes ripe all at once that I could make it.  In years past, I've made it almost completely with home grown produce, but since I didn't really have a spring garden this year, I settled for home grown tomatoes and purchased everything else (mostly organic).

I think the thing I love most about this recipe is its simplicity.  I'd say about 90% of the flavor comes from the roasting process - deep, intense flavor, with a bit of caramelization here and there.  Here's how today's went down.

(Find the original recipe on An Oregon Cottage - Roasted Tomato Sauce (with Vegetables)

First, I started with this gorgeous bowl of red ripe tomatoes out of our garden.

I cleaned them, quartered them, and laid them in two baking sheets.   Then, I cleaned and cut up additional veggies.  Today, I used bell peppers, carrots, celery (including the leaves), zucchini, shallots, and elephant garlic, because that was what I had on hand.  I sprinkled the whole thing with olive oil and balsamic vinegar (slightly different than the original instructions), and topped it with a sprinkling of Italian seasoning, salt, and fresh ground black pepper.

I roasted the whole thing at 400 degrees for 50 minutes.  Then I put it in the blender, one pan at a time, and gave it a whirl.  I didn't strain it, because I like the texture it has when the little bits remain.  I added more salt to taste and put it in the fridge to cool.

I get about one quart of sauce per baking sheet.  So two quarts of sauce will go into the freezer tonight, to sit and wait until I'm ready for it.  This is beautiful mixed with penne or rigatoni as a side dish with simple grilled chicken or beef.

One reminder for myself for next time - use the light baking sheets, not the dark ones.  Otherwise you end up with completely burned edges like these, which pretty much detract from the nice roasty flavor we're going for here!