Making Yard Sauce (Roasted Tomato Sauce)

A few years back I watched a YouTube video on making roasted tomato sauce from our fresh tomatoes. Priscilla Blaine of ‘The Real Housewives of Cross Stitch’ did this post explaining the process. They also did a YouTube video showing the process.

Skip used to grow fabulous Roma tomatoes and I’d make tomato sauce that would see us through to the next summer. Last year I had a total tomato crop failure, probably because I didn’t fertilize or do anything special for the few tomato plants I did plant. I decided this year I would buy tomatoes instead.

I headed to our local farmer’s market and bought a half bushel (a peck?) of beautiful Roma tomatoes at their peak of ripeness. There were several vendors but the guy I bought these from had the nicest ripest ones and the right quantity ready to go. And the bonus was he spoke Spanish! I told him (in Spanish) that his were the best looking tomatoes of everyone’s at the market. Then I staggered away with my purchase. I’m guessing it was over 20 pounds worth.

Back at home, I washed them, dug out the stem bit, quartered them and put them in lightly oiled pans. They don’t even need to be skinned as they’ll be puréed in the blender after they’re cooked and cooled down.

I added some sliced onion and a few basil ‘pucks’ ** from my freezer.

Sprinkled salt, drizzled oil, and slid them in the oven.

As I write this my house smells like ‘Geri’s Italian Kitchen’. Wish there was smell-o-vision so you could enjoy as well.

In the past, I’ve also roasted them on the barbecue. It saves heating up the house.

Once the roasting is done and the tomatoes have cooled I purée them in the blender. Then insert a freezer bag in a 2cup measuring cup and pour about 2 cups worth of the purée into each bag. 

Press out most of the air and seal. They can go in the freezer laying flat.

I only have a small chest freezer so I freeze some and can the some. This involves canning supplies and extra work, but the sauce preserves well on a shelf until needed.

I got 13 two-cup bags and 6 jars of sauce. A seventh jar broke in the canning pot and I got it out of there before about 2/3 of the sauce leaked out. I continued canning in the tomatoey boiling water after removing most solids from the water with a sieve.

Here’s the recipe I use: (quantities will vary)

YARD SAUCE 

Preheat the oven to 425F

• Tomatoes
• ~ 1/2 chopped onion
• Fresh basil (handful or so)
• Salt (Kosher if you have it)
• Olive Oil

Drizzle oil on bottom of the pan. Add quartered tomatoes, onion, and basil. Sprinkle with salt and drizzle more oil over top.

Bake for 45min to an hour or until the tomatoes start to look dried out and some onions are a bit toasted. Let cool and purée batches in the blender. Store in containers in the freezer. 

When going to use, you can add more basil, plus Parmesan or Romano cheese and a pinch of sugar.

This tomato sauce can be used for soups, pasta sauce, bloody Mary’s or anything else you’d use tomato sauce for. 

** Basil Pucks

Here’s a way to preserve your fresh basil to enjoy all year round. Wash and dry fresh basil. Put it into a food processor and drizzle a bit of olive oil. Process until somewhat mushy. Press the mixture into mini muffin tins until about 3/4 full or in regular muffin tins half full. Freeze. Pop out of the tins and into ziplock bags and store in the freezer. If using regular sized muffin tins you might want to break the ‘pucks” into smaller pieces. Now you can use the basil for all your cooking for the rest of the year.

Buon apetito!