If I made only one preservation all year, my Roasted Tomato Sauce would be it. Yup, a bold statement, and I said it.

The flavor that locally grown vine-ripened tomatoes make as the base for soup/stews/sauces simply pales in comparison to its industry-canned relatives. It’s the reason my winter dishes shine. The slow & home-roasted flavor simply can’t be beat.

I had a big failure this year. My slicer tomatoes were all hit with tomato blight. It’s a tragedy. If you’ve been to my garden, you’ve heard me lament about this. But alas, with this tomato loss I’m back to my old ways – buying locally from an organic farmer.

I lamented to a girlfriend of my tomato loss, she followed up a few days later with an email – a local farmer sells flats of Romas, $33 for 10 lbs. I drove to buy 2 flats the next day.

My recipe below is available to subscribers of Garden to Kitchen.