How to make tomato sauce in the oven
The best tomato sauce simmers for hours at a low temperature—or does it? You roast this super-easy tomato sauce in the oven, with a few generous knobs of butter. Delicious.
The idea that Italians only use olive oil and never butter is complete nonsense. Pasta sauce is often made with olive oil, but a knob of butter is frequently stirred in at the end. Or your pasta with tomato sauce is topped with a curl of butter. So you might as well add that butter to the sauce while you’re preparing it. This makes the flavor incredibly rich and creamy. Roasting it in the oven also gives it a wonderfully dark flavor.
Butter
The idea is simple: tip the contents of a can of tomatoes into an oven dish with whole garlic cloves and a few knobs of butter. Make sure the oven dish isn’t too large, otherwise the sauce may spread out too much and burn. Then add whatever flavorings you’re in the mood for at that moment. A few anchovy fillets add a deliciously salty flavor; sprinkle over some dried chili flakes or some (dried) oregano. Do you have a Parmesan rind left over? Toss it into the oven dish. Just remember to take it out afterward.
In any case, it’s helpful to use ingredients that you can mash with a fork afterward. Garlic becomes soft after some time in the oven, so you can easily mash it into your sauce. You can also add an onion or shallot, but then you’ll need to purée the sauce in a blender. Not the end of the world either.
Method
Preheat the oven to 200 °C. For 1 can of tomatoes, use approximately 50 g of butter and 4 garlic cloves. Divide the butter into knobs and distribute them over the tomatoes. Season generously with pepper and salt, plus any extra flavorings if desired. Roast the tomatoes for 25–35 minutes, until the garlic is soft and the tops of the tomatoes are charred brown. Remove from the oven and mash finely with a potato masher or fork.
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