Any type of tomato can be cooked down into a sauce. The juicy heirloom slicer types that taste so good in salads and on sandwiches have a smaller ratio of pulp to juice, so they will take longer to cook down than the meaty, pendulous San Marzano variety.
In this easy recipe, the tomato skins slip off the tomatoes once cooked, so there is no need to go through the extra step of parboiling the fruit first to remove the skins before cooking them into sauce.
Sprinkle the tomatoes with the seasonings of your choice—oregano, sage, rosemary, fennel seeds or even pitted olives or capers.
Ingredients
- 10–15 ripe tomatoes (10 if using larger heirloom varieties or 15 if using the smaller San Marzano or Roma types), cut in half lengthwise
- 2–4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- ½ teaspoon, or more, sea salt
- 6 fresh thyme sprigs
Preparation
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Coat the tomatoes with olive oil, then place them cut side down in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Add the garlic cloves to the baking sheet and sprinkle everything with the salt. Tuck the thyme sprigs among the tomatoes.
Place in the oven and roast until the tomato skins begin to shrivel and they begin to release their juice, about 45 minutes.
Remove and let cool slightly. Lift off and discard the skins. Discard the thyme sprigs and squeeze the garlic cloves to release the creamy interior.
Place the tomatoes and garlic in a food processor and process, in batches if necessary, to your preferred consistency, from chunky to smooth. If you want a thicker sauce, cook the processed sauce down in a saucepan to the desired thickness.
This sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to a year.
