Roasted Garlic and Tomato Pasta Sauce

Once again tomato season is upon us and I am experimenting with 2 of my favorite recipes to (hopefully) make something delicious.

Combining my regular pasta sauce and tomato soup recipe to hopefully make a delicious roasty and garlicy sauce.

Roasted Garlic and Tomato Pasta Sauce

I roasted about 3 Lbs (1 sheet pan) of roma tomatoes and garlic cloves, they were drizzled with lots of olive oil and salt and pepper.

Roast in the oven for 45 minutes at 425 degrees farehneight.

While the tomatoes roasted I caramelized an onion and sauteed a green pepper to really bring out their flavours.

Once everything was cooked and cooled it all went into the food processor (chunks are not a favorite in this house) then popped into a big pop with a can of tomato paste and tomato sauce (just go no name guys- best bang for your buck especially right now)

For herbs I thew in 1 TBSP of parsley, basil, garlic powder, cilantro and oregano. I also added in some vegan “cheese” since it was in the fridge.

I let this witches brew simmer for about 3 hours and I have to say the results were absolutely fantastic. The taste was sweet yet savory still, it was not too runny nor was it too thick. I know I’ll never be able to make it quite like this again but I will certainly be using this technique going forward.

Final Product: Penne pasta with local lean ground beef and homemade roasted tomato pasta sauce

Fresh Pasta

With the price of food ever rising I decided I’d start investing in a few things I’ve always wanted that will make the daily cost of living a little more manageable.

Don’t get me wrong… They were pricey (~$250 each) but I’ve been eyeing these pasta presses for a long time and am VERY HAPPY to have them.

I call these investments my “apocalypse prep” so that in the event we just end up fending for ourselves all I need is flour, water and eggs then some solar power to make all the comforts of home.

(Obviously more work to be done- bare pasta is kinda meh.. One step at a time.)

It seems like the pasta recipes are all very similar (and easy) the one that came in the pasta maker instruction manual by far seems to be the best consistency for the machines (who would have thought)

I’m really looking forward to experimenting with different flours once I get the hang of the basic recipe! Lots of opportunities for whole wheat or even vegetable based pastas I think. For now though I am enjoying this very easy 4 ingredient recipe- sometimes simple is best.

The presses allow me to make my own lasagna, fettachuni, spaghetti, macaroni, fuscalini, etc etc for pennies on the dollar- I don’t recommend making the switch to fresh pasta if you don’t want to invest the time to do the prep but I do recommend it for the amazing taste as ease of cooking (4 minutes!)

For the lasagna noodles I opted not to boil then, instead treating them like “ready to bake” noodles and putting them right in the oven. Took about 35 minutes to get them tender to our liking but if you have the time to do it I really recommend! With it cooking in the sauce it just added so much flavor.

I still need more practice with making spaghetti, it just LOVES getting stuck in the machine and the internet has not provided any assistance to why… So I think it will just be a matter of practice and getting the consistency and thickness just right.

I am so excited to continue to learn tips and tricks with these and I will certainly be sharing more as I learn!