Oven-roasted Principe Borghese Tomato Sauce
Thanks to the Vagabond Farmers, the Italian heirloom Principe Borghese has become one of my favorite tomatoes for popping into my mouth and for roasting in the oven for tomato sauce. This small (one – two ounces), pear-shaped tomato is dense and has few seeds. Roasting them in the oven concentrates their flavor and produces a thick, sweet sauce. As fall moves toward winter, tomatoes are now at their peak and will soon disappear until next year. Better get them while we can and make sauce for now and to freeze.
I adapted a recipe for Roma tomato sauce from Deborah Madison’s Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone.
The Recipe
Ingredients
- Enough whole Principe Borghese tomatoes to cover a cookie sheet or jelly roll pan that’s lined with foil. I roast the tomatoes whole.
- One small yellow onion, very thinly sliced
- Thyme and majoram sprigs to taste. (I used a couple sprigs of each herb.)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- Sea salt and freshly milled pepper
PREPARATION
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Put the tomatoes in a single layer in a baking pan with the onion and thyme, drizzle the oil over all, and season with salt and pepper.
- Bake until they’re soft, shriveled, and falling apart, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- Remove the herb sprigs, and puree or pass through a food mill. Taste for salt and season with pepper.
This locally inspired recipe is brought to you by Pam Walker. Pam is an avid home cook, writer, and local farm and food activist who is also a board member of the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. Thank you, Pam, for helping inspire us to use locally sourced ingredients!