I live in the high desert city of Palmdale, which is hot, dry, and a very tough place to grow things. The Earthtainer has been my most successful attempt at gardening yet. Freddie lives in the coastal town of Oxnard, where anything grows. So the tomatoes are a combination of the ones he gave me and the ones from the Earthtainer. Mine are a mix of Roma and heirloom round ones (forgot the name) and Fred's are Early Girl heirlooms.
Roasted Tomato Sauce in the Vitamix
Ingredients
12 lbs or so of tomatoes
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves with skin still on
1 yellow onion, cut in eights
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Several sprigs of basil (I used most of a Trader Joe's clamshell of basil, which is 4 oz)
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 375° F.
2. Wash tomatoes.
3. Arrange tomatoes, garlic, onion on sheet trays. Drizzle olive oil on top, mix up to coat with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (or use Wicked Good Dalmatian Rub - recipe below). (I had an extra shallot so I put that on as well.)
4. Put trays into oven and cook for 45 minutes.
5. When you take them out, there will be liquid in the tray. At this point, you can take the skins off the tomatoes if you want to, but I didn't because I'm putting them in the Vitamix and also the skins have some of the good roasty flavor. Pick out the garlic cloves, let cool slightly, and peel off the skin. Same with onion pieces.
6. Rinse off basil leaves, and remove the large stems from the leaves (don't need to worry about small stems - Vitamix will handle them easily).
7. Use a slotted spoon to put the tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil into Vitamix. Leave the extra liquid on the pan behind. Be careful when blending hot ingredients. Start the blender on variable speed 1, move up to variable speed 10, and then switch to max. Use the plunger if necessary.
8. This step might not be necessary for you, but I transferred sauce to Le Crueset dutch oven and simmered for awhile to achieve the consistency I wanted. Test for salt and pepper.
9. Enjoy some sauce on pasta, and freeze the rest.
Oh yea, the Dalmatian Rub recipe. I used this for their smoked brisket preparation from Wicked Good Barbecue by Andy Husband and Chris Hart.
1 cup kosher salt
1 cup coarsely ground black pepper
3 Tablespoons garlic granules or garlic powder
1 Tablespoon chipotle powder or cayenne pepper
Mix all ingredients in a bowl and store in an airtight container for up to 2 months. Use on everything - it's great!
