Recipe: The Most Time-Consuming Pasta Sauce. Ever.

Ingredients:
24 Very, VERY ripe medium sized tomatoes
2 cups Chicken stock
1 cup Dry, white wine
2 cloves Garlic, minced
8 leaves Fresh basil
4 leaves Bay leaves
1 Tbs Dried oregano

2 Tbs Sugar
Red pepper flakes
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Olive oil


Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 300ºF. Slice 10 of the tomatoes into ¾ inch rounds. With fingers, scrape out and reserve seeds and juice of tomatoes. Place tomato slices on greased baking sheet, sprinkle slices with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, and drizzles of olive oil. Bake tomatoes for one hour, until tomatoes look a bit dry and shriveled.

While tomatoes are baking, take remaining 14 tomatoes and make a small cross cut at the bottoms of each of them. Scald in boiling water for 30 seconds and immediately shock in a bowl of iced water. Peel tomatoes and place, with reserved tomato juice/seeds, in a large pan. Add stock and white wine, adding more of each if necessary to cover tomatoes. Bring pot to boil, then reduce to simmer. Add bay leaves, basil, oregano, sugar, pinch of salt and generous pinch of pepper. Simmer until only ¼ of liquids remain (about 45 minutes).

After baked tomatoes are done, place in food processor and pulverize into a thick paste. Add this paste to the boiling pot of peeled tomatoes, which should start to easily break apart when crushed with a wooden spoon.

Continue to stir and break up tomatoes as liquids reduce until sauce becomes desired consistency. Also continue to taste and adjust seasoning during simmering. Don’t be afraid of sugar and salt, which often brings out the great tomato flavors! Once sauce reaches desired consistency, serve immediately, work into a lasagna, or cool and freeze for future meals!