Spaghetti with Roasted Tomato Cream Sauce

This is a wonderful dish to make at the end of the summer when you are wondering what to do with all the fresh, ripe tomatoes that are around! It only requires a couple of ingredients but renders a deliciously rich & creamy sauce. It is so easy, you will be asking yourself why you ever bought jarred tomato sauce!! Ingredients:

2 lbs of ripe Tomatoes

1/2 small Onion, thinly sliced

4 cloves of Garlic

Olive Oil

1-2 tbsp Heavy Cream (optional)

Salt & Pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. I used Capari Tomatoes because they looked the best in the grocery store. And I used just shy of 2 lbs; I want to save some for salads. But you could use grape or cherry tomatoes too. Really, you could use any tomato that you want! (If you use larger tomatoes, you will want to remove the skins after roasting them.) In a casserole dish or sheet pan, place the tomatoes. I cut the larger ones in half & left the little guys whole. Smash the garlic cloves (just to remove the skin) & scatter with the thinly sliced onions over the tomatoes. Drizzle olive oil over top, paying close attention to the garlic cloves. Season with salt & pepper.

Roast in the oven at 325 degrees for 1 1/2 hours. I pulled it out about half way through & gave it some love, basting the tomatoes, garlic & onions with some of the olive oil & juices accumulated at the bottom of the pan.
While the tomatoes are cooling, I lightly smashed the tomatoes using the back of a spoon.

Pour the mixture into a sauce or chefs pan & cook over low heat. Cook the spaghetti according to the package directions.

This is an excellent recipe to make if you want to jar or freeze tomato sauce. In the summer when you have an abundance of ripe tomatoes around you should take advantage of them- you will thank yourself later!! To do this, you would want to check your seasonings, add salt & pepper if needed & let the sauce cool at this point. When the spaghetti is ready, add the heavy cream to the tomato sauce, just a swirl of the pans worth. You can completely omit this step. This sauce is delicious with out the cream too! (If you are making this in advance, do not add the cream until just before you are ready to eat it!) Turn off the heat & stir to incorporate the cream. Check your seasonings again & add salt if needed.

Serve immediately over spaghetti, or what ever pasta you prefer. I topped it with lots of freshly grated Parmesan & chopped Italian flat leaf parsley.