deep roast tomato sauce
This sauce is legitimately life-changing. It’s deep, it’s dark, it’s a little sweet, it’s over 3kg of tomatoes reduced down into a single jar.
I was first introduced to this type of sauce by Forza Win (a crazy good restaurant in Peckham) who posted the recipe on their Instagram at the start of lockdown. I have adapted their recipe a little over the many many times I’ve made it, but the concept remains the same. Lots of tinned tomatoes (those from San Marzano are the best), a whole bulb’s worth of confit garlic, lots of olive oil, and some sea salt, all roasted to the point of burning, again and again, until it is reduced down to almost nothing.
It’s a recipe with very few ingredients, so the quality of each is really amplified. With that in mind, you should do what you can to get the best tinned tomatoes, a good quality olive oil, and use a salt from a company like Maldon. It really does make a difference.
Since starting to make this sauce, I don’t think there’s been a time when we didn’t have a jar in the fridge. It’s now almost expected that we’ll always have one on hand, ready to spread on sourdough, or just go at with a spoon.
for the sauce
3.2kg tinned tomatoes (the whole peeled version, not chopped)
1 garlic bulb (12-15 cloves)
good olive oil
sea salt
method
Start by draining the tomatoes in a colander and gently rinsing with water. You want to get rid of all the liquid they sit in so that you are left with just the tomatoes, as clean as they can be.
Put these in a large oven proof dish and set to the side.
Next, peel all your garlic cloves (you want a whole bulbs worth, so probably around 12-15 cloves) and slice into discs.
Put the garlic in a pan, add a couple of pinches of salt and add enough olive oil to cover it all up. It may seem like a lot of garlic and oil, but this will all be added to the tomatoes eventually, so don’t worry too much.
Cook the garlic on a low-medium heat, until they just start to change to a light brown.
Whilst the garlic is cooking, get your oven preheated to 220c.
Once the garlic is cooked, add it (as well as all the oil and salt) to your tray of tomatoes. Give it a few stabs with a wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes a little bit, and try to push any protruding garlic cloves under the oil/tomatoes.
Bake it in the oven for 45 minutes at 220c, until it is bubbling like mad and the top has begun to burn.
Take it out, give it a stir, and bake again for another 30 minutes.
Take it out, give it another stir, and now bake in 15 minute segments until it has reduced down, seriously darkened, and looks ready to go. It should take between 1.5-2 hours in total, depending on how much liquid was in the tomatoes and how your oven works.
Remove from the oven and let it cool ever so slightly. After 10-15 minutes cooling, spoon it into a kilner jar, or other sealable glass jar, and close it up. You want it to sweat a little, so as to really integrate all the flavours together.
Once it has cooled and sweated sufficiently, use it however you see fit. Chuck it in some pasta, spread it on some bread, eat it with a spoon, whatever you fancy. This sauce will get better over the next few days, so make it in batch and enjoy it as you go.
