I looooove homemade marinara sauce. Not only does it taste fresh, but you can really make it your own by adding extra spices or choosing to leave it chunky so you can really taste the pieces of tomato and garlic. You can follow the recipe exactly and put it through a food mill to remove all of the skins/seeds, or you can do what I do and just leave them. Some people don’t like the skins in their sauce, but I don’t mind them (plus I don’t own a food mill and I’m too lazy to peel all of those tomatoes by hand)!
This is a great way to use up all of those extra tomatoes, plus it’s so easy to just run downstairs and grab a jar whenever you need it. This is one of our “most used” canned goods.
OVEN-ROASTED MARINARA
Roasting tomatoes and onions intensifies the flavor, drawing out the inherent
sweetness of both. This is a versatile base sauce that can be used on its own or
as the starting point for other sauce variations. From “The All New Ball Book of
Canning and Preserving,” (Oxmoor House, 2016).
Oven Roasted Marinara
Ingredients
- • 20 pounds tomatoes
- • 1 1/2 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium)
- • 6 garlic cloves, minced
- • Vegetable cooking spray
- • 1 cup dry red or white wine
- • 1 tablespoon salt
- • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- • 2 teaspoon black pepper
- • 2 bay leaves
- • 2 teaspoons citric acid or 1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
Directions
- Step 1 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Cut tomatoes into halves or quarters, as necessary, to create uniform size. Arrange tomatoes in a single layer on large rimmed baking sheets. Bake, in batches, at 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until tomatoes are very soft and beginning to brown. Cool.
- Step 2 2. Spread onions and garlic on a separate large baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
- Step 3 3. If you like chunky marinara (we do!), just mash in pot with a potato masher. If you like it smooth or without seeds you can either 1. Press tomatoes, in batches, through a food mill into a large bowl and discard skins and seeds. 2. Or you can puree it all in a blender (this will not completely chop skins though).
- Step 4 4. Place tomato puree and caramelized onions/garlic in a large stainless steel or enameled stock pot. Stir in wine and next 4 ingredients. (Feel free to add additional spices to taste, just not additional vegetables which would affect the acidity of the sauce)
- Step 5 5. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, uncovered, 15 to 20 minutes or until reduced to desired texture. Remove and discard bay leaves. Stir in citric acid or lemon juice.
- Step 6 6. Ladle hot marinara sauce into a hot jar, leaving 1/2-inch headspace. Remove air bubbles. Wipe jar rim. Center lid on jar. Apply band, and adjust to fingertip-tight. Place jar in boiling-water canner. Repeat until all jars are filled.
- Step 7 7. Process jars 40 minutes, adjusting for altitude. Turn off heat, remove lid, and let jars stand 5 minutes. Remove jars and cool.
