June 15, 2013

Roasted Tomato and Garlic Pasta Sauce (Marinara sauce/Spaghetti sauce)


This past week may have just been the busiest one in my entire life (no kidding), as far back as I can remember. With so many seemingly urgent things on my plate I was almost completely overwhelmed, especially with my husband going off on his first long MBA residency for a whole week. I literally had to keep the midnight oil burning and getting up early at 5 AM for that whole week. All this coupled with the added pressures of a new job was zapping away whatever energy I had left by 4 pm, leaving me just brain dead and almost non-functional. But then I pick up my daughter from daycare and seeing her mojo after a well rested 2 hour afternoon nap, definitely helps to push myself on for a few more miles before I can call it a day, well actually I had no choice.


We were having guests over for the weekend and so I planned to call some cleaners to get my house spruced up. Believe it or not, the very first day of the week when my husband was out of town, I had a broken toilet flush, a computer crash, my daughter's ballet recital video that I recorded on my cell phone get corrupted, my cell phone dies on me and the cleaners cancelled their visit at the last minute!! When my husband called me for the usual end-of-day status check, I was literally running around like a chicken with her head cut-off and almost broke down in tears. Well it took some coaxing from my husband to convince me that it was actually not the end of the world – LOL!

Roasted Tomatoes

Well, definitely such fast paced lives with long hours of work and unending to-do lists demand some super easy recipes that can freeze well. I therefore make time during the weekend to prepare some pasta sauce, which will help me during the following week. So all I would need is to boil some pasta, add a few mix-ins, sprinkle some cheese and Voila!! a homemade dinner would be ready in a jiffy!


Makes Approx 4 Cups

Ingredients
5Lb – Roma Tomato, thickly sliced
2 - Onions, chopped
2 whole pods - Garlic
1 tsp – Italian herbs blend or Oregano
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil

Directions
  • Preheat the oven to 425F
  • Cut the whole garlic pod into halves
  • Arrange the thickly sliced tomatoes and garlic pods on a baking tray.
  • Brush the tomato pieces and garlic with oil or use an oil spray
  • Sprinkle with salt and pepper
  • Bake for 1-1 ½ hours
  • While the tomatoes are baking, heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and add chopped onions. Sauté until golden brown and take off the heat
  • After the tomatoes and onions cool, transfer into a blender and blend until smooth.
  • Season with more salt & pepper to taste and enjoy with your favorite pasta
Notes and Tips
  • You can add more herbs to the sauce. I like to keep mine simple
  • I used dried herbs for the sauce
  • You can experiment with your favorite herbs
  • Transfer the pasta sauce into small sterilized glass jars and freeze it once the sauce is cooled

19 comments :

  1. Aww.. that sounds like a really bad week, Shema. Now you are getting me all worked up about the time when my husband goes for his first residency of MBA! I might bother you for some moral support! Or some pasta sauce! Love ths hot of those stacked up roasted tomatoes. Love the taste of roasted tomato sauce and think its an easy and splendid way of making pasta.

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  2. Shema the recipe is lovely and ur images r droolworthy,am so glad to have found ur blog!

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  3. I kept scrolling up and down for sometime to stare at those awesome pics....Sauce look gr8 :)

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  4. so lovely.. cannot take the eyes off the pic.. So yummy

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  5. This sauce sounds so robust and full of flavor. I want some!

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  6. This reminds me I have to stock up on some pastas that I had been forgetting in all my previous grocery trips so that I can get dinner ready in a jiffy too (for my fussy husband).
    P.S.: Your photos are amazing!
    P.P.S.: Hope you will have a better, relaxed week ahead :)

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  7. What a wonderful pasta sauce! I love roasting tomatoes. My mouth waters at your photos and recipe, thanks for sharing.:)

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  8. Loved the third snap!! The recipe sounds flavorful and the sauce looks thick with perfect color.

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  9. Ahh.. That was a hectic week for sure :( But the pictures look awesome & the sauce too :) Esp the roasted tomato shot & the one in which sauce is dripping from the pot !! Lovely & innovative..

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  10. Roasted tomatoes are always so good and tasty. Your sauce is perfect and you have wonderful photos here. Great job!!!

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  11. I came across your blog today and loved the photographs and recipes. Great work!

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  12. Killer pictures Shema..hats of to u for taking such pictures inspite of ur hectic week..hope things are normal now :)

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  13. Oh I know days like that! Horrible and nerve wrecking!
    Recipes like this one are life savers on such occasions!
    I love the idea of roasting the tomatoes, this must add so much flavor!
    P.S. Your pictures are breath taking, especially the first one!

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  14. YUM!! I love "roasted" tomato and "garlic" gives really nice aroma and flavor... Roasting vegetables makes everything extra good!

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  15. Oh my goodness this looks so delicious. We love having pasta sauce on hand and this looks like an awesome recipe!!

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  16. Exquisite! This sauce must taste amazing and have an incredible depth of flavor.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  17. just love roasted tomato and garlic sauce. gorgeous pics shema.

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  18. Beautiful pics and the sauce looks so so droolie delicious.

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First of all thanks a lot for stopping by my space. I would be very happy to hear from you and would love to see your comments and feedback :)
Thanks a bunch,
Shema

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