The Easiest Tomato Sauce You'll Ever Love

Even if you've never picked up a knife...you can make your own tomato sauce. I promise. Because this sauce involves no dicing or cutting. You literally just throw it together.

The biggest factor that will sway the outcome of this sauce is the quality of tomatoes. If your not growing them yourself, or don't know someone who is, I highly recommend you hit up your local farmer's market. There are tons of markets in the Central Texas area, and if you are in Austin, I consider you to be farmer's-market-spoiled, because there are tons. Get out there and buy some GOOD tomatoes. Ones from your traditional supermarket pail in comparison. They are bland, mealy and never allowed to ripen on the vine. HOWEVER, if you absolutely must use icky store-bought tomatoes, you will still have a delicious tomato sauce that triumphs over any bottled/canned pre-made crap you get from a shelf.

Oven-Roasted Tomato Sauce

• 2-3 lbs tomatoes, depending on your preference. Use a mixture of tomatoes (cherry, roma, slicing tomatoes) for a well-rounded sauce. You can core the tomatoes or leave them whole.
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 6-12 cloves garlic, once again depending on your preference. Crush them with the flat side of a knife, (this way, they will be easier to peel later)
• 2 sprigs fresh oregano, thyme, or both. If you don't have it fresh, substitute 1 tsp. dried.
• Peppers - a jalapeno if you want to add some spice, a bell pepper, or both
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• Salt and pepper, about 1 tsp. each, more to taste.

(As you can see, it is totally up to you on proportions here...experiment, have fun with it!)

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine all ingredients in an oven proof dish.

3. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven to stir, and place back in oven. Bake another 30 minutes and remove from the oven.

4. Let it cool for ten minutes or so. Remove garlic wrappers. Puree all ingredients in a blender or food processor, or place the ingredients in a bowl and use an immersion blender (depending on which blending equipment you have).

You're done! Season with more salt if desired. If the sauce is too thick, add a little chicken brother or water to thin it out.

This sauce is great for pasta of course, but super awesome on pizza as well. You could even add a cup or more of chicken/vegetable stock and have it as a soup. I like to double the recipe so I can freeze half and use it some other day when I don't have time to cook. While the sauce is cooking, you can boil noodles, make pizza dough, saute veggies/meat to add to the sauce, etc., to save time.