It’s a conundrum. To describe my roasted tomato freezer sauce without waxing poetic would be an injustice. And yet to do so risks putting off hesitant cooks instinctively mistrustful of hyperbolic food writers.
So let me just say this: Roasting fresh summer tomatoes with a bit of olive oil, some fresh herbs and a fistful of garlic is a brilliant maneuver. Trust me. The tomatoes come out beautifully bronzed on the outside, with a concentrated, tomatoey flavor oozing from their softened innards.
The flavorful melange is a cross between a sauce and a filling. Chunky yet velvety. I pack each batch into freezer bags and am able to sustain a state of smug gratification for as long as my supply lasts. Usually into April.
There are so many ways to use this special mixture. As a base for a quick pasta sauce and topping over roasted polenta, to omelet and lasagna fillings.
My friend Chris Peterson has been doing the same thing for several years; banking her flavorful cache in the freezer to maintain her summer-quality cooking all year long. And like me, she roasts her harvest until there is no more to harvest. So by the end of the season, Chris figures she’s squirreled away several gallons worth of sauce. Or filling. Or soup base. Or whatever you want to call it.
“I use the big square roasting pan that came with the oven,” she says. “I spread a little olive oil on the bottom, cut tomatoes in half – slicer, paste (the best!) and cherries – whatever needs to be used up. I toss in a handful of peeled garlic cloves and some herbs (fresh rosemary, basil, or cilantro), drizzle more olive oil over them, a little salt and pepper and roast at 400 to 450 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes.” She goes more by sight than time, waiting until the tomato skins are turning blackish, “yet the rest is still juicy and the fragrance has our mouths watering.”
In the Dominguez household, the roasting sometimes takes place out on our deck in my grill, over indirect heat, with the lid on. I have a wood pellet-fed electric model (it’s called a Traeger and is built in Mount Angel, Ore.), which provides a wonderful smoke flavor to the vegetables. So even on the hottest days of summer, I can be roasting without heating up my kitchen.
Chris has created yet another option. It’s a little time consuming, she adds, but to anyone who has pondered whether to leave the tomato skins on or fish them out of the sauce before freezing it, she has a wonderful solution: “After roasting, I pluck all the skins off (they peel off with ease) and put them in the blender or food processor along with some of the juicier liquid and most of the roasted garlic cloves, then whomp it up and pour it back into the pan with all the other stuff.”
I’ve approached the skin issue from the other direction. Earlier this summer, I decided to find out if peeled tomatoes would roast up just as nicely as unpeeled tomatoes. Well they do. The resulting mixture is just as intensely flavored as the skins-on version, and produces a smoother sauce. Or topping. Or filling.
So while tomatoes and all the other savory offerings of summer are here, consider filling your freezer with a substantial supply. As Chris says, “Most anything that calls for tomato sauce will be boosted into outer space with roasted tomato sauce.”
There’s a fun and free-wheeling aspect of preparing a batch of roasted vegetables for the freezer. Specific recipes aren’t nearly as useful as listening to your inner cook. For instance, my friend Chris’s latest spin-off involves eggplant. She had roasted a lot of it, “which leaves a horrid mess to scrape out of the pan,” she adds. “But I decided to roast the tomatoes right away. The juice from the tomatoes worked all that flavorful black stuff up into the tomato sauce.” It added depth and texture to her basic mixture. Sheer genius. Now she’s contemplating a roasting of eggplant, tomatoes, carrots and onions.
* To peel or not to peel … It’s up to you. If you plan to puree the mixture once it’s been roasted, then don’t bother dealing with the tomato peels, because they will disappear once they’ve been subjected to the blender or food processor. Especially if you’re using cherry tomatoes. With some of my batches I like to leave the vegetables in large chunks so I have more options for use in the months ahead. If I don’t want pieces of peel in the mix it’s easy to simply pluck them out of the sauce after thawing.
* These tomato-based roastings are wonderful soup- and stew-starters, so when packaging for the freezer, consider appropriate amounts for such options. The other thing my friend Chris likes to roast and freeze for a soup base is green beans, “with onion slices, garlic, basil or rosemary, and (of course!) Olive oil.” She freezes the mix in quart-sized yogurt containers and says they make divine cream soups in winter.
* Another wonderful combination is simply a roasting of whole garlic cloves (don’t be shy! I use at least 2 cups worth) and tomatoes with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper of course. They both get tender and sweet in just about the same amount of time and can be used chunky as they come out of the oven, or pureed into a garlicky/tomatoey seasoner. Fresh herbs, such as basil, rosemary or oregano can also be included, but that will limit uses down the road.
* Mushrooms make another great addition, but because they release a lot of moisture during cooking, I like to give them a head start in the oven (or on the grill) before adding all of the other vegetables.
* For an extra zip, glug in a bit of balsamic vinegar during roasting. It adds depth and oomph.
* Storage containers: I like to pack my roasted mixes into quart and gallon-sized recloseable freezer bags because they store nice and flat during freezing and thaw within an hour in a bowl of hot water (with a smaller bowl of hot water nestled on top to keep the bag submerged). For a more frugal and ecologically sound approach, copy my friend Chris and use up your clean yogurt and cottage cheese containers.
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Roasting fresh tomatoes until they’re soft on the inside and beautifully browned on the outside concentrates their flavor. They come out of the oven gloriously golden and wrinkled and are wonderful gems to have on hand in the refrigerator and freezer for simple sauces and stocks over the days and months to come. Roast just tomatoes and a dash of olive, or toss in some peeled cloves of garlic and a couple halved shallots, for even more flavor.
About 2 pounds tomatoes, cored and halved, quartered, or cut into 1-inch cubes (to measure 4 cups)
1large Walla Walla Sweet onion, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
1/2cup coarsely chopped basil
8-10cloves of garlic, peeled
About 1/4 cup olive oil
About 1/2 teaspoon salt
About 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Prepare the tomatoes as desired. If using cherry tomatoes, simply remove the stems and halve each one. Place the tomatoes in a large roasting pan, jelly-roll pan, or any baking sheet with sides. Add the onion, basil, and garlic. You can crowd the vegetables together, but don’t go beyond a single layer. Drizzle on a bit of olive oil, and then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Roast in a preheated 375- to 450-degree oven (the hotter the oven, the shorter the roasting time) until the tomatoes are turning golden on their skins. Depending on your oven temperature, this will take anywhere from 20 minutes to about 90 minutes. When done, they will have collapsed and look quite wrinkled.
Alternatively, consider roasting the vegetables over indirect heat on your grill, with the lid on. Remove the roasting pan from the oven or grill and let the vegetables cool. With a metal spatula or wide, flat-sided wooden spatula, stir and scrape the cooled tomatoes to dissolve all of the cooked-on bits of food.
Scrape the tomatoes into the work bowl of food processor and process just until almost completely smooth (with a few chunks remaining). 21/2 pounds of tomatoes (8 medium-sized) with the garlic cloves and onion yields about 3 cups of sauce.
To freeze, ladle the sauce into freezer containers, leaving about 1-inch head space. Let cool completely, then attach lids and freeze.
The Chris Peterson skinned variation: After roasting, pluck all of the darkened skins off the tomato flesh (it comes off easily). Place them in a blender or food processor along with a healthy glug of the liquid from the roasting pan. Blend on high until the skin is a puree. Stir this mixture back into the vegetables before refrigerating or freezing.
The Jan Roberts-Dominguez skinless variation: To remove the tomato skins before roasting, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cut a shallow X in the bottom of each tomato. Blanch them in the boiling water for about 30 seconds (just until the skin begins to peel away), them remove with a slotted spoon and run under cold water to cool. Peel the skins off the tomatoes, then core and cut into halves, quarters, or 1-inch chunks and proceed with recipe.
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With its silky texture and summery fragrance, this is one of the most pleasurable dishes to make. And it freezes beautifully. The roasting melds everything together, transforms the flavors, and yields juices so delicious they invite dunking with chunks of grilled French bread – the perfect summer appetizer. Also great served cold as a little salad, as a tasty filling for a sandwich or frittata or cozied up next to a grilled chicken.
About 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
About 2 pounds of ripe summer tomatoes (any combination you’re growing would be fine, from beefsteak to Roma), peeled (see note below)
4big sweet bell peppers, red, orange, and yellow
1Walla Walla Sweet onion, peeled, halved and cut into 1-inch chunks
Fresh-cut kernels from 2 ears of sweet corn
12 Nicoise olives, pitted and coarsely chopped
6flat-leaf parsley sprigs
12large basil leaves, minced
4plump garlic cloves, chopped
2tablespoons capers, rinsed
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Prepare the tomatoes as desired. If using cherry tomatoes, simply remove the stems and halve each one. Halve or quarter others. Drizzle about 2 tablespoons of the oil in the bottom of a large roasting pan, jelly-roll pan, or any baking sheet with sides. Add the tomatoes, peppers, onion, corn, olives, parsley, basil, garlic and capers.. You can crowd the vegetables together, but don’t go beyond a single layer. Drizzle on the rest of the olive oil, and then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Roast in a preheated 375- to 450-degree oven (the hotter the oven, the shorter the roasting time) until the tomatoes are turning golden on their skins. Depending on your oven temperature, this will take anywhere from 20 minutes to about 90 minutes. When done, the tomatoes and peppers will have collapsed and darkened beautifully.
Alternatively, consider roasting the vegetables over indirect heat on your grill, with the lid on. Remove the roasting pan from the oven or grill and let the vegetables cool. With a metal spatula or wide, flat-sided wooden spatula, stir and scrape the cooled mixture to dissolve all of the cooked-on bits of food.
Makes a scant 4 cups of roasted vegetable sauce.
To freeze, ladle the sauce into freezer containers, leaving about 1-inch head space. Let cool completely, then attach lids and freeze.
Note on peeling tomatoes: Don’t worry about peeling the cherry tomatoes, but the larger ones can be peeled so that you don’t have to deal with the peel after roasting. To peel, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, cut a shallow X in the bottom of each tomato. Place them in the water just until the skin begins to peel away, about 30 seconds. Remove the tomatoes with a slotted spoon and place in a bowl of ice water until cool enough to handle.
Jan Roberts-Dominguez is a Corvallis, Ore., food writer, cookbook author and artist. Readers can contact her by e-mail at janrd@proaxis.com.
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