Roasted Tomato Sauce

For the past few years, my friend Jenny & I roasted tomato sauce at the end of summer to enjoy throughout the winter. My daughter calls this my “squirrel” phase. Everyone loves this sauce, and there’s never enough to make it through the winter.

(Makes ~12 large jars of sauce + a meal for the cooks and families on sauce making day)

25 pounds ripe tomatoes peeled and chop into sections

6-7 pounds (red & yellow) onions, roughly chopped, half roasted

3 pounds roasted sweet baby peppers or bell peppers, roughly chopped

Half bag of celery

4-6 jalapeño peppers & 7 heads of garlic, separated into individual cloves and peeled (or 1 peanut butter jar of jalapeño garlic mix)

3 heads of roasted garlic, peeled

1 small (3.5 oz) jar capers

6.5 oz Greek Kalamata olives

~2 oz pesto alla Genovese

¼ bottle Cabernet Sauvignon (Woodridge by Robert Mondavi in 2013 sauce)

~2 cups olive oil

2 bunches of basil

1 bunch of oregano

5 leaves of sage

7 bay leaves

Salt & pepper to taste

Put onions, celery, peppers, garlic, capers, olives, and herbs into food processor. Roughly chop the mixture and divide into 2 large roasting pans. Add tomatoes and all the ingredients to the roasting pans. Stir. Put the roasting pans on a large grill. The grill should be heated to high temperature (>500F). Cover the grill and cook for a few hours, stirring occasionally. Remove when all the ingredients have cooked into a thick sauce.

Sterilize glass jars with canning lids by boiling in hot water. Fill the jars with the hot tomato sauce and seal with lid. Boil the jars in hot water for 10 minutes. When the sauce cools, the lids should be sealed. I store these jars in the basement. Serve with pasta and sausage/bacon.