Apprentice Ian made a lovely tomato pepper sauce this past week. Here is a mostly hands off version using a slow oven to concentrate the flavors. This sauce will store a few days in the fridge and freeze well too.

https://www.saltandlavender.com

Ingredients

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3 lbs of your favorite tomatoes, red or heirloom, or even sungolds(reduce roasting time for these little guys)

2-3 Carmen Peppers, or about pound of Yummy Snack Peppers

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning

5 whole cloves garlic peeled, to taste

Salt & pepper to taste

1 oz fresh basil for garnish

Directions

Pre-heat oven to 275F. Place the rack in the top third of the oven. Wipe a bit of oil over a baking sheet, or line with foil.

Cut tomatoes into halves or quarter and remove cores(Sungolds can stay whole). Cut peppers into quarters(halves for snack peppers) and remove any seeds.

Add olive oil, dried herbs, garlic, and salt & pepper to a bowl. Toss with tomatoes and peppers in the mixture

Place tomatoes and peppers on the baking sheet cut sides up. Add garlic cloves in between the tomatoes and peppers. Drizzle any remaining oil from the bowl on top of the tomatoes and peppers. Place in oven and cook for 2.5 hours.

Once cooked, let the tomatoes and peppers cool for at least 10 minutes.

Transfer contents of baking sheet into a food processor (you may need to do two batches) and blend until desired consistency is reached. An immersion blender and a pot also work okay for this. You can thin as needed with a bit of water.

Re-heat before serving if needed, and garnish with fresh basil.

Hold in the fridge a few days, or freeze in airtight containers or bags for later this winter.

Enjoy!