Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce: Recipe

Shady's back, ya'll!

My friend Cindy brought me about 2 pounds of cherry tomatoes from her parents' garden, all different shapes and colors: red, yellow, green, tear drop round, oval like little jewels. And like little jewels they sat inn my fridge. And sat. And sat. I couldn't think of what to do with them. No one eats that much salad. Finally, I hit upon the idea of turning them into sauce. I remembered a roasted tomato sauce I'd made once with Roma tomatoes and figured it would probably work well with cherry tomatoes, too. Boy, did it ever! Tangy, sweet, bursting with flavah, impressive but with that "voila" kitchen simplicity I love. Jeff and I stuffed ours into calzones with lots of feta, mozzarella, olives and broccoli, but I think this sauce would go just as well on its on right on top of a mess of pasta. I've given measurements below but I think this is one of those recipes you can fiddle with and still come out with awesome results.

Roasted Cherry Tomato Sauce

About 2 lbs. cherry tomatoes (any color and shape, washed, stems removed)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 to 4 cloves garlic (depending on how garlicy you like your sauce. Jeff and I did five, but we're madmen)
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp fresh oregano or 1/2 tbsp dried
pinch red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375.

2. Slice all the cherry tomatoes in half. If they're very big, slice them into thirds or quarters.

3. Dice the garlic.

4. Toss the cherry tomatoes in a 9 x 13 roasting pan (any size will do but 9 x 13 seems about right) with the garlic, balsamic, olive oil, red pepper, oregano and salt and pepper to taste.

5. Bake in the oven, tossing the tomatoes with a wooden spoon about every 10-15 minutes, until the tomatoes have burst and the mixture looks like a tomato sauce, about forty-five minutes to one hour.

6. If you're very anal about such, you can run it through a sieve or food mill to remove the skins and seeds, but Jeff and I left them in and didn't think two tosses about it. Fantastic!

7. Serve any way you would tomato sauce: on pizza, over pasta, or... in a calzone!