Roasted Tomato Sauce

If the Fried Squash Blossoms, weren't delicious enough...

...next time serve  them with a roasted tomato sauce for a flavor explosion!

Roasted Tomato Sauce

8 Roma tomatoes

olive oil to drizzle

salt and pepper to taste

1 medium onion chopped

3 cloves garlic chopped

1/2  cup vegetable or chicken stock

1/2 cup half and half

Rinse and cut tomatoes in half lengthwise.

Place on a tray cut side up.  (I like to line the tray with non stick aluminum foil.)

Drizzle with olive oil.

Generously sprinkle with salt

Place on the grill or in the oven.

Now you can either high heat roast at 450 degrees or slow roast at 200.

Its a great time to roast tomatoes while you are already roasting something else.  In this case, we were smoking a pork shoulder for pulled pork. (More about that in another post.)  So I put the tomatoes on the grill and smoked them for about 5 hours at 200 degrees. 

The finished tomatoes are decided by site.  You can leave them 

cooking for quite some time, you just don't want to completely dehydrate them or burn them.

The applewood smoke lent a delicious smokiness to this sauce.  

Remove from the heat.  Place in a food processor.

Now you can also throw the onions and garlic on the same pan as the tomatoes and pull them off when they are nicely caramelized.  

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the tomatoes, so in this case I did not.  

Saute the onions and garlic until translucent.  Place in food processor with the tomatoes.

pulse until smooth. Pour in the chicken stock,  pulse to blend. At this point it should be a smooth thick blend.

Pour tomato mixture into a sauce pan. Warm over medium heat.  Add the half and half. Heat through. Adjust seasonings to taste. Add more stock or cream if necessary to make a smooth medium thick sauce.

This sauce goes well with chicken, shrimp, pasta, and of course Fried Squash Blossoms!