Easy Marinara

Hello!

Tomatoes are easily one of my favorite things! I love fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, tomato salads, soups and sauces! Recently uncooked tomatoes have been giving me some sort of weird heartburn, so I have been cooking my tomatoes in different ways so I still get my “fix”. Since I also love pasta, an easy roasted tomato marinara seemed like just what I needed to make.

This is a super affordable post which is surprising given that we’re using ten fresh tomatoes, and while you can definitely buy cans of tomato sauce for cheaper, but honestly this was so delicious that it felt fully worth the extra money. I also used a can of tomato sauce to make my roasted tomatoes go further so keep that option in mind as well!

Roasted Tomato Marinara and Spaghetti

$0.92 per serving or $5.50 for six 

Ten tomatoes (five romas and 5 vine ripened) – $2.93

680ml Tomato Sauce -$1

1/2 an onion- $0.40

1 package (900 gr) of spaghetti – $1.17

Pantry: 2 parmesan rind pieces, 3 garlic cloves, dried basil, dried Italian seasoning, crushed red chili flakes, balsamic vinegar, 1 rosemary sprig or dried rosemary

The first step of this is to set your oven to preheat to 415 degrees on bake. Then wash all of your tomatoes and cut them in half.Take your half onion and rough chop it, as well as lightly smash your garlic cloves and/or cut them in half/quarters. I oiled my pan with olive oil to help keep my tomatoes from sticking.

Next, roast your tomatoes until they get soft and caramelized (mine took 20 minutes). Pull them out and let them cool until you can handle them to peel the skin off as best you can, depositing the flesh into a blender along with the roasted and onions. Blend the tomatoes, garlic and onions until smooth, then pour the mixture into a sauce pot along with one tin of general purpose tomato sauce. Add in 1-2 Parmesan rind pieces (depending on their size) and a sprig of rosemary. Simmer this mixture for 45 minutes.

Once you’ve simmered away for 45 minutes, remove your rosemary sprig and Parmesan rinds and make your spaghetti! I dished up my plate with a healthy amount of grated Parmesan as well.