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.

This is a “no recipe recipe,” it’s a matter of chopping the tomatoes, add oil, salt, and garlic, and roast until done to your preference. Puree (or not!), and freeze.

Here’s what I did:

10 lbs Roma tomatoes, chopped

Olive oil, drizzled

2t salt

6-8 cloves garlic

Spread tomatoes & garlic on two sheet trays, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, toss to combine, and bake at 400F until to your preferred roasted-ness. I bake mine for 45-55 minutes, flipping the trays half-way through the cooking process. Puree in a blender then portion and freeze for your future enjoyment!