Roasted Tomato Sauce

I started making this roasted tomato sauce years ago when my gardening skills had improved and I was having an abundance of tomatoes every year. I would always freeze tomatoes roasted with garlic, to be able to savor that summer flavor in winter, but struggled with making sauce. The course I had taken in canning had me seriously concerned about the level of acidity of the varieties of tomatoes I was growing and the safety of my end product and I despised all the work of skinning and seeding the tomatoes. I decided if I could freeze my roasted tomatoes, I could easily freeze a similarly produced sauce. This simple roasted tomato sauce quickly became a family favorite.

1. Preheat oven to 232°C (450°F).  Lightly grease a large roasting pan, add and gently stir all the ingredients except for salt, pepper and sugar, and place in oven. 

   Roast for approximately 1 ½ hours, stirring every half hour. Vegetables will char. After cooking down the sauce, leave it chunky or use a stick blender (preferred) right in the pan to puree all ingredients. Taste the sauce and add up to 59 ml (¼ cup) of sugar, and salt and pepper to your taste.  Freezes for up to 8 months.