Passover made from Scratch
A Passover Essential
Prep Time
15 minutes
Cook Time
75 minutes
Serves
6-7 cups
Oven roasting tomatoes intensifies the flavor and brings out a richness you don’t get from cooking them on a stove or in a slow cooker. That being said, if you don’t have a Passover oven, you can totally make a wonderful sauce in a crock pot. Either way, the result will be so much better and healthier than anything you’d get from a jar!
On Passover, I use tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes for so many amazing recipes, from cabbage soup to everyone’s favorite meal of meatballs over zucchini noodles. Each 13″ x 17″ aluminum tray holds about five pounds of tomatoes. I made four trays, but I will probably need more.
The Best Tomatoes to Use
The best tomatoes to use are roma tomatoes. Their firm texture, low moisture, and sweet flavor make them ideal for roasting and sauce-making.
Ingredients
- 5 pounds roma tomatoes, halved
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 teaspoon salt
- Sliced onion or 2 teaspoons onion powder (link to homemade instructions)
- Sliced shallot or 2 teaspoons shallot powder (link to homemade instructions)
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- Optional – 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper (I grow my own)
- Optional – 2 teaspoons dried oregano or basil (I grow my own)
Steps
1
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Drizzle pan with olive oil and sprinkle with salt, sugar, and any other herbs and spices that you use. Sliced onions and shallots will work too.
2
Arrange tomatoes: cut side down on a large baking sheet prepared as above.
3
Roast for 60-75 minutes until tomatoes are caramelized and the skin begins to separate
4
Let cool and pinch the skins between your thumb and forefinger to slip them off. I love that this recipe allows me to skip peeling tomatoes!
5
I prefer to hand mash tomatoes with a potato masher to retain the bright red color and leave them more like crushed tomatoes. But you can blend the roasted tomatoes in a food processor or with an immersion blender until smooth (or leave slightly chunky if you prefer). Infusing them with air will cause the sauce to turn a bit orange but it doesn’t alter the taste.
*Freezes well or store in airtight containers in the fridge for up to a week.
*Slow Cooker Method: Place all ingredients in a slow cooker and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Blend or mash when finished.
This sauce is a foundation for so many Passover meals. Let me know how you use your roasted tomato sauce, and happy cooking from scratch!