Tomato season is here, and I bet even some of you who don’t consider yourselves gardeners have a tomato plant or two so you can enjoy the amazing flavor of a fresh, home grown tomato.

For those of you who don’t grow your own during the summer you certainly won’t have any difficulty finding them at local farmers’ markets. If you’re new to your area, haven’t shopped local farmers’ markets recently or just plain don’t know where to find one near you, check out www.localharvest.org to search by zip code.

I am an avid gardener, but unfortunately do not have much space for vegetable gardening. This year I decided to get more inventive and find ways to grow a few things in pots. (If you recall, earlier this year I shared a picture of some small radish I grew in fine soil in a wide shallow pot.) One thing I was particularly enthusiastic about was a package of San Marzano seeds I’d had in the refrigerator for years. On March 29 this past spring my first San Marzano tomato journey began. 133 days later, I harvested my first nine tomatoes! (Not many, but San Marzanos are indeterminate meaning they produce fruit over a period of time.)

Clearly nine plum tomatoes is not nearly enough to merit getting out the canning supplies or even cooking down to paste. So what was I to do with my few precious tomatoes? For anyone who isn’t already familiar with San Marzanos, these tomatoes are not the kind of tomato to slice and eat raw on a sandwich or in a salad. These tomatoes best show off their merits when they’ve been cooked. Given my initial small yield, I devised a way to make do with so few of these little gems — roasted tomato sauce.

One more short discourse before I dive into sharing the recipe - I was about to call this quick & easy pasta sauce, but it really isn’t quick. Even though it doesn’t qualify as a quick sauce it more than qualifies as easy and the active preparation time is very little, about 10 minutes. The rest of the time the tomatoes are roasting away in the oven getting really sweet and saucy. Do you have a quick version of your own fresh tomato sauce? I’d love to hear about it.

easy pasta sauce

• San Marzano tomatoes, cut in half lengthwise
• olive oil
• coarse salt, to taste
• fresh basil (may substitute dried)
• fresh oregano (may substitute dried)
• fresh thyme (may substitute dried)
• garlic
• good quality balsamic vinegar

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Lay tomatoes, cut side up in a baking dish large enough to hold them in a single layer. If using dried herbs instead of fresh, sprinkle tomatoes with dried herbs at this point. The amount of dried herbs to use is the same or a bit more than the appropriate amount of salt. Season with salt and drizzle somewhat generously with olive oil. Put in oven and roast until completely soft and edges begin to brown, about 45 - 60 minutes.

Just before taking the tomatoes out of the oven, mince the fresh herbs (if using) and garlic. Set aside. Remove tomatoes from oven. Flip tomatoes cut side down and pull the skin away with a fork. Discard the skin. Stir in the minced herbs and break up the tomatoes with a fork or a couple of dinner knives the same as you would cut butter into flour for biscuits or pie crust. Drizzle in balsamic vinegar and adjust seasonings to taste.  Serve over hot pasta.

Notes:

• If your balsamic vinegar is not well aged and has a bit of an edge on it, stir in a bit of brown sugar to tame it.
• For my nine tomatoes, I used about 1 1/2 T. balsamic vinegar, 1 1/2 T. fresh basil, 2 t. fresh oregano, 2 t. fresh thyme and 1 large clove garlic.
• My nine tomatoes made enough sauce for 2 adults with no leftovers!

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