JulieO's Slow Roasted Tomato and Red Wine Sauce.

[cookie1]

SLOW ROASTED TOMATO & RED WINE SAUCE  makes about 4 cups
Great with meatballs or use as a pasta sauce – delicious!

About 2.5 – 3kg roma tomatoes, halved lengthways
15 garlic cloves (skin on) (or less if particularly large)
1 cup full-bodied red wine
20ml balsamic vinegar
1 tsp sugar
salt & pepper
2 onions, chopped

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Get out 2 large baking trays, no need to oil or line with paper.

Place tomatoes, cut-side up, on the baking trays.
Drizzle the unpeeled garlic with oil in a bowl and toss to coat.  Add to the baking trays, pushing in between the tomatoes. Grind with salt & pepper.  Roast for 60-75 mins or until tomatoes are soft. Cool slightly.

After putting the toms in the oven, heat a sauté pan with a little oil, then add the onions.  Get them simmering, then turn down heat to lowest setting and let cook, stirring now and then until golden and tender.  You may need to add a little more oil as you go. Could take 30 mins or so.
 
When you are happy with the onions, turn up the heat and add the red wine and let bubble for a min or so.  Turn the heat back down and let simmer until almost all gone.  Turn off the heat.

When toms are cool enough to handle, pull off the skins, they should come off easily and drop the flesh into the TM bowl.  Squeeze the garlic from their skins into the bowl as well.  Process 30 secs/speed 10 until smooth.

Scrape in the onions, add balsamic, sugar and a little more salt & pepper. 
Whiz  20 secs/Reverse + speed 3 until everything is combined.
Heat 20 mins/100C/Reverse + speed 3.
Check seasoning and sweetness.   Let cool.

[Cornish Cream]

Thanks Cookie for putting the recipe here for people to see .

Thank you Julie for taking the time to post it

[JulieO]

No worries Cornish.  I hope anyone who tries it, enjoys it. 

[KarenH]

This may be a stupid question - but is it really necessary to remove the skins from the tomatoes?  I know a lot of tomato passata recipes say to remove the seeds and skin, but I've never really understood why.  Seems to be a lot of fiddle ............

[cookie1]

I never do Karen, but then I am a lazy cook. 

[Kimmyh]

I think it alters the color of the finished product Karen. Makes it more orange..

[KarenH]

Thank you Cookie and KimmyH - I am a lazy cook too Cookie!   We have a stack of cherry tomatoes from our garden, and I was going to give this a go on the weekend, but the thought of peeling 3kg worth of cherry tomatoes made me feel faint 

[JulieO]

This may be a stupid question - but is it really necessary to remove the skins from the tomatoes?  I know a lot of tomato passata recipes say to remove the seeds and skin, but I've never really understood why.  Seems to be a lot of fiddle ............

Karen, if you don't feel like removing the skins (and who would when using cherry toms), just blitz the toms a bit more after roasting.  Hopefully the skins will be blitzed enough too and you won't get any sticky bits of skin happening.  Do this before adding the cooked onions otherwise the sauce tends to go more orange (from the onions).  If you don't mind that, you can blitz the onions too, but I like a more textured sauce than a pure smooth one in this instance.
As I use romas, you wouldn't believe how easy the skins come off after roasting, they literally fall off. 

[Cuilidh]

I am sure I read somewhere (I think it was one of Cookie's posts quite a while ago) that if you don't go above 4 when you are chopping tomatoes they don't go orange.  Do I recall that correctly?  Mind you, not going above 4 doesn't really equate to blitzing!

[KarenH]

Thanks Marina and Julie - I will give this a go over the weekend.

[Cuilidh]

I am sorely tempted to have a go at this over the weekend as well.  Time will tell

[cookie1]

Not from me I don't think, but someone's idea.

[KarenH]

I have just finished making this using cherry tomatoes.   It is a delicious,  thick, rich and tasty sauce - one of the nicest I have tried!   Because I couldn't be bothered peeling the tomatoes, I did as Julie suggested, I blitzed the tomatoes at speed 4 after roasting, instead of speed 10.  There are a few bits of skin in the sauce, but I think they add texture     If I make this again using larger tomatoes I will try peeling with them and see if it makes much of a difference.  Thanks Julie!

[judydawn]

Looks delicious Karen, you could pick out the skins with tweezers LOL

[cookie1]

Lol Judy. Perhaps the boys would like to pick out the skins Karen.