This is by far the weirdest method to make tomato sauce. Te result does actually does differ by the default procedure quite a bit and, very much to my surprise, is actually less effort.

I talked about a method cooking a tomato sauce for pasta on a baking tray instead of a pot with a friend a while back. While I did intend to try it sooner I somewhat did not want to try it as it seemed to be quite a bit of effort. To my surprise this was not the case at all and in the end I did end up spending less time in front of the stove than I used to when cooking a thick tomato sauce.

Ingredients

• medium sized tomatoes
• garlic
• salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Half your tomatoes and place them on a baking tray with the cut side down (if you are fancy, cut out the hard part of the stalk).

Place them in the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the skin gets shriveled. In the meanwhile peel and cut some garlic into thin slices.

Once all tomatoes are shriveled get the tray out of the stove and remove their skin using two forks.

Afterward squash the peeled tomatoes with a fork. Be careful to not burn yourself during this step! Add the sliced garlic and mix it under the mashed tomatoes. Do not neglect this step or the garlic might burn on top of your tomatoes.

After 20 minutes in the oven, sir and spread the sauce equally on the tray. After 20 more minutes the sauce should be pretty thick already. This of course heavily depends on the amount and type of used tomatoes. In case there is too much fluid, redo this step until the sauce is to your liking. Season with salt and pepper to taste and serve on fresh pasta.

I’m guessing most people will read this and ask them self why this should be less work and why it results in a better sauce. When cooking a standard tomato sauce I either spend way more time cutting the tomatoes or I use the blender (which I afterward have to clean). I also have to check and stir the boiling tomato sauce in a pot more often than the three interactions I have to make on the tray.

The removal of the skin does make a big difference for consistency and mouth feel. You can do that of course with a normal sauce as well. However, this would require an extra step of blanching the tomatoes first. And peeling them on the tray is really easy and actually pretty satisfying.

Tips

I love garlic, so I added a ton of it. As the tomatoes will bake in the oven for quite a while it will become pretty mild.

You can remove some exceed fluids between peeling and mashing the potatoes. This makes the process faster. Just note that the garlic will become more prominent if you go for a shorter baking time.