Roasted Tomato Sauce

I came home today to discover a pile of ripe tomatoes on the vine. I've been eating tomatoes a lot, since this one little plant seems to want to feed me the whole summer, but this amount was just too much for me to use for snacking, sides, salads and sandwiches. So I decided to roast them and make a pasta sauce, since roasting brings out so much flavour. There was also a red onion I needed to use pretty quickly, as well as a lot of garlic. So score one more in my efforts to not waste my food.

Anyway, this is pretty easy to make. Serve it over pasta or maybe on some parmigiana, or maybe use this as pizza sauce. Or cook up some sausage and add it in. I'll probably use it for pasta, pizza and with sausages. For today, I just made it and tasted it (a lot) but I didn't get to use it for a meal yet because I had to finish the tom yum (which, by the way, was somewhat painful as it wasn't nearly as good as I hoped it'd be) before I was "allowed" to eat anything else (excepting olives, of course). Hope you enjoy!

2 1/2 pounds tomatoes (a little closer to 3 pounds, but I snuck some bites), quartered
14 cloves garlic
1 large red onion, cut into eighths
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1-2 tablespoons olive oil

1 twig rosemary, chopped (I am really tired so I have lost my words and can't remember what you call the twig w/ leaves on it at the moment)
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon italian seasonings
pinch sugar

Toss the first group of ingredients into a roasting pan and roast for 1-2 hours (until onions are soft) at 300F. Transfer (with juices) to a saucepan and add the second group of ingredients (actually, this might be a lie. If you are using good balsamic, don't stir it in until you're done cooking the sauce. If you're using grocery store balsamic, it's not a lie). Simmer a half hour, then blend (I left my blend a little chunky, so it'd be interesting to me). If it's too thick, add a little stock or water. If it's too thin, cook a little longer (I cooked it an extra 20 minutes, I think). If you're using the good balsamic and you're happy with the texture of the sauce, stir that in. Makes about 4-5 cups.



After that came out of the oven, I almost ate it right then instead of the tom yum and it almost didn't make it into this:

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