The Quick Tomato Sauce below is pretty good, with fresh, local, summer tomatoes. If you're going to use those bland winter tomatoes shipped in from afar, you're best to simply throw fresh herbs into some Prego.
If you have some hours and feel like cooking, the Roasted Tomato Sauce is a good way to use up those tomatoes that are edging past their prime, especially if it is still fresh tomato season and you're headed to the farmer's market to pick up more fresh tomatoes.
Gary's Quick Tomato Sauce
Medium chop 3 to 4 tomatoes.
Put your pasta water on to boil. While your pasta cooks, cook your sauce in a sauté pan.
Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in the pan.
Throw in:
• 1 tbsp. capers
• Thin slices of garlic (or pre-minced from store)
• Chopped tomatoes
Simply stir so the garlic doesn't burn. Drain your cooked pasta.
I always add my pasta to my sauce, so I can control the ratio of sauce to pasta. Use a slotted spoon and tongs to plate -- depending on the tomatoes, it can be a bit liquid-y. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil and throw on some basil leaves for fun. Serve.
You can top with a quality grated cheese or homemade bread crumbs.
A variation we enjoy: throw a few peeled, deveined shrimp into the heated olive oil in the pan, cook a minute on each side, remove. Make your sauce as above. When pasta is added, stir in shrimp to reheat. I've found shrimp can be affordable when used this way -- a handful in a pan instead of a bowlful on the table.
Gary's Roasted Tomato Sauce
You can do this in large batches (as I am right now), but you need to be careful of juice overwhelming your baking sheet (I just carefully poured hot liquid off after an hour of cooking -- not ideal!). When it cools, I'll put servings in freezer bags and freeze for later. Measurements are approximate -- don't skimp on the dried herbs!
Ingredients
3 to 6 tomatoes
Salt and pepper
Finely diced onion
Garlic powder (or minced garlic from the store. I think the powder sticks better and burns less.)
Dried oregano
Dried thyme
A good quality olive oil
Peel 3 to 6 tomatoes.
This is a messy, tedious process when you're doing a bag full of tomatoes, but not difficult. Cut a cross in the top and bottom of each tomato, where the stem attaches. Drop tomatoes in boiling water for 4 minutes. Remove to cutting board. I use a combination of long tongs and a sharp knife. First I cut the tomato in half through the stem part. I put each half stem side down on the cutting board and notch to remove the stem chunk. I also remove any large areas of white, they tend to stay chewy. (I don't bother seeding, but some do at this point. Seems like a waste of tomato to me.) The skin should pull off easily. Be careful, hot tomato will stick to your fingers and it hurts!
Most of the imperfections, dark spots, etc. on farmer's market tomatoes will come off with the skin, which is handy.
A lot of juice, seeds and water will end up on your cutting board -- just throw this away. An apron is always a good idea when working with tomatoes.
If you skip this step, pieces of skin will not allow you to make a creamy sauce, and the tomatoes will not roast properly.
Some tomatoes will come out of this process as beautiful, intact halves that are picture perfect. Some will come apart. No matter, we're making sauce.
Place the tomato halves cut side up on a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil. A wire rack on this can be helpful, but is not mandatory.
Add ingredients to top of tomatoes in this order: salt and pepper; finely diced onion; garlic powder; dried thyme; dried oregano (rub between fingers when sprinkling to release the flavor). Over the top, drizzle with olive oil.
Bake in 325° oven for 2 hours. Check after the first hour to be sure nothing is burning.
After 2 hours, turn up to 400° and cook for an additional 1/2 hour.
Pull out of oven, carefully place all in a saucepan and break up with a spoon, or potato masher. An immersion blender works well here to smooth the sauce. Bring to a boil, cook 5 minutes.
If you like your sauce very smooth, cool this sauce and smooth to your liking in a food processor. The immersion blender works fine for me!
Left, a large batch of roasted tomatoes just out of the oven.
