It’s possible to make a perfectly acceptable fresh tomato sauce very quickly, especially when the tomatoes are very ripe (dose them with a little sugar if they are not) but long, slow cooking brings out the flavour more, and roasting to tomatoes in the oven first intensifies the flavour even more.
This is a favourite way of preparing tomato sauce in our family. It can be frozen for use in baked penne or macaroni dishes, stirred through pasta, used in eggplant parmigiana or served over meatballs.
Preheat the oven to 200C. Pack ripe tomatoes in a roasting dish so that they fit snugly. Pour over enough olive oil to wet the fruit and cover the bottom of the dish with a thin layer. Season with plenty of black pepper and sea salt and sprinkle with a couple of teaspoons of red wine vinegar. If you like, place a whole red chilli or three among the tomatoes.
Bake for about 30 minutes then remove from the oven. Wearing rubber gloves, remove the skins (don’t worry if they are blackened) and any stalks, then return the tray to the oven for another 15 minutes. Remove and discard the chillies.
You can use or freeze the sauce as it is, or put it through a mouli or put it in a food processor or blender. If you do process the sauce, it will change colour from scarlet to bright orange. Freeze in containers big enough for one meal, or in an ice-block tray.
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