the easiest basic tomato sauce

I’m a firm believer in making tomato sauce with fresh tomatoes, primarily because I can’t stand the tinny taste of canned tomatoes.  Unfortunately, I’m never organized enough to make giant batches of tomato sauce during the summer when tomatoes are in-season – I’d rather have a caprese salad! – which means I’m stuck trying to find decent tomatoes in the fall and winter.  Most of the large off-season tomatoes in the market tend to have a pretty mealy texture and lackluster flavor; accordingly, the resulting sauce tends to be a far cry from what’s desired.

Cue the cherry tomato: they’re available year-round and tend to have good texture and flavor.  Roasting them intensifies the flavor but still leaves a clean tomato taste.  There’s 5 ingredients in this recipe, but the sky is the limit here.  I like to keep the basic tomato sauce on-hand in my freezer and doctor it up for various applications: if I’m planning a pasta diner, I’ll saute onions and garlic with some oregano, then add the defrosted sauce and some red wine and let it simmer away to make a fantastic marinara. I’ll turn it into a salsa by adding some garlic, lime, cilantro, jalapeno, and onion.  Let me know what unique applications you come up with in the comments below!