Balsamic Cherry Tomato Sauce

Are you currently experiencing Cherry Tomato Overload in your home garden like I am?  Oh .. my ... gravy!  My one plant - yup ONE - has yielded over 1100 tomatoes this season. Why do I know that my plant has yielded 1100 tomatoes?  See, my uncle Don told me last year that his cherry tomato plant had given him over 1000 tomatoes.  Sounded like a challenge to me so I opted to count each and every little red globe that I picked off of my plant this summer.  A little competitive?  You betcha we are.

1100 tomatoes is a LOT so I've been giving these babies out to everyone and anyone who wants them - including the dry wall guy who is currently doing our basement (I will have pics of that space once we're done and hopefully with a couple of DIY's to show in our upcoming Industrial Chic basement).  

It doesn't help that Brad and the kids aren't fond of cherry tomatoes (something to do with the 'nasty guts' inside).  So I have to resort to other options to use up my bounty and becoming the crazy lady who doles out cherry tomatoes to unsuspecting people walking down the street isn't high on my list.

In order not to waste any of these little beauties I decided to make a sauce with them.  Nothing brings out the flavour of cherry tomatoes like roasting.  Wow.  It sweetens them and takes them to a whole new gastronomical level of yum.  And, let's be frank, making them into a sauce is an easy way to keep that summer freshness going into the upcoming long winter months.  Enjoy!

3lbs cherry tomatoes - stems removed
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp fresh rosemary, lightly chopped
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive or grapeseed oil 
to taste - salt & pepper
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, stems removed
1/3 cup fresh basil leaves, stems removed and coarsely chopped
1 tbsp brown sugar

Preheat oven to 400F.  Line a jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with a 1-inch edge) with foil and lightly spray with oil.

In a large bowl combine tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, balsamic, oil, salt and pepper.  Toss until tomatoes are coated.  

Pour tomatoes onto prepared baking pan and move them around so they're in a single layer.

Roast tomatoes for 30-35 minutes or until the tomatoes start to bubble and some of the skins burst.  Remove from oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

When the tomatoes are cool enough to handle remove as many of the skins as you can. 

Note: I'm not sure if this is a must but I was afraid of wasting my precious tomatoes by having a sauce that was riddled with skins.  I didn't get all of the skins off but I also didn't notice any skins in the sauce so you could probably leave them on

Spoon tomatoes into your food processor.  Pour all juices from the baking pan into the hopper as well.  Add the fresh thyme and basil as well as the brown sugar to cut the acidity.  

On low and then high speed, mix until combined.  Serve immediately or allow the sauce to cool a little and pour into freezer Ziploc bags to use at a later time - like when the snow is falling and you desperately want something fresh tasting.

Source: The Baking Bookworm