Sauces- tomatoes and tomatillos

During tomato and tomatillo season, I make massive amounts of versatile sauces/salsa with them that can be multi-purposed for a number of quick dishes. And as you've probably garnered by now, I will roast them first for ease of summer cooking and to bring out deep flavors of the veg.

1) Roasted tomato marinara:

First, puree the roasted tomatoes in a food processor and then sauté finely chopped onions and garlic (lots of it) in olive oil. After the onions/garlic cooked down, add some tomato paste (concentrate, in a tube), red wine, a few splashes balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper and a little brown sugar. Let come to a good simmer and then add the roasted tomato puree. Taste to make sure salt, sour and slight touch of sweet is balanced and then finish with lots of chopped basil.

  

As easy as this appears, it tastes great because of the freshness of the starting materials as well as the roasting process. It even got a "Excellent marinara sauce. Best ever!" review and a two thumbs up by a tween. This made for a quick and dirty weeknight pasta. But you can use this sauce as a starter for many things, some of which I will try to put up in future blogs. I am also envisioning eggplant parmesan in the near future.

 2) Roasted tomatillo salsa:

Like me you probably need to figure out what to do with all the chili peppers and tomatillos from the garden. I made a big batch of tomatillo salsa of which I froze away a few jars for future use.

Remove husk from tomatillos, rinse the sticky coat, toss well with olive oil and roast on grill. Similarly, roast chilies (mixed types are fine, ie: poblano, anaheim, jalepenos) on the grill (I use a basket or tray) until skins are evenly charred. Cover until cooled and then peel skins and remove seeds. In a food processor, add the roasted tomatillos, roasted chillies, chopped garlic, chopped onions, a handful fresh cilantro, juice of one or two limes, salt and pepper. Process until well chopped and blended but not completely saucy.

  

I use this sauce to make mexican green rice, chicken enchiladas, or serve with just some tortilla chips. I used some of my sauce to make Arroz con Pollo (chicken with rice), which is on the next post.