Rant and a sauce recipe

So today is a bit of an annoyance to me. I decided to visit the Friday Nutrition class to tell the students there that I'm looking for tutees since almost nobody is coming to the Center for Academic Support and asking for a nutrition tutor... I say almost because I actually do have one person that's going to be using me for both Nutrition and Menu Planning, and that's another reason I had to come into the city a full four hours before I have to be at work... What makes it slightly annoying is that the tutoring session is from 12-12:30, so even when it's over, I'll still have an hour and a half before I'm scheduled to be at work... It's no big deal, I can manage to dick around in the computer lab for an hour or so, but it's the principle of the thing... I usually don't leave my house until 1:20 on Fridays and Saturdays because I hate coming into Charlotte, even though I do like the city itself.

To top it all off, I'm now kicking myself for spending so much money this past weekend... While it was completely worth every cent I spent, I'm wishing that we hadn't gone to the Carolina Renaissance Festival... Well, that's a lie, I had fun, but I'm wishing I wouldn't have spent so much money when we got there. Haha.

Anyway... I'm gonna give you another recipe... This one I stole from the Highland Grill at Hershey Links. It's an absolutely delicious tomato sauce, and I'm glad that I stole the recipe for it. haha


Charred Tomato Sauce

5 lbs Tomatoes (The greater the variety in types of tomatoes, the better the sauce. Try to avoid grape or cherry tomatoes)
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1/8ths
5 cloves garlic
1 ounce fresh marjoram
1 ounce fresh oregano
1 ounce fresh tyme
2 cups red wine (Any red will do, but Hershey uses Merlot)
1 pint tomato juice (optional, based on freshness of tomatoes)
Salt and Pepper to taste

MOP:
----If you have a grill----
1.) Saute the onions and garlic in stock pot until the onions are translucent (Almost clear)

2.) Deglaze with wine and add herbs.

3.) Bring to a low simmer and let the wine reduce by half.

4.) While wine is reducing, cut your tomatoes in half and place skin side down on hot grill. Rotate 90 degrees once you get nice, black grill marks

5.) Once the second set of grill marks are made, flip the tomatoes so the skin side is up. Repeat the grill mark procedure.

6.) Pull tomatoes off the grill and put into the pot. The wine should be reduced enough by now.
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----If you don't have a grill----
1.) Preheat oven to 350 F (176.7 C)

2.) Follow steps 1, 2 and 3 of with grill instructions

3.) Cut your tomatoes in half and lightly coat them in oil.

4.) Place tomatoes skin side up onto one or two sheet trays and put in oven. (Number of trays determined by how many tomatoes you can fit on one tray)

5.) Roast tomatoes until skin blackens slightly, be careful not to completely burn the tomatoes. (should be about 10 minutes, maybe less)

6.) Add tomatoes to pot.
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7.) If your tomatoes are not very juicy, add the tomato juice. If they are juicy, you can choose to leave out the tomato juice. Either way, bring the whole thing to a low simmer.

8.) Simmer for 3-6 hours, stirring occasionally. If it starts to get dry, add more wine or tomato juice (Your choice, just don't add water)

9.) This is where it gets tricky. If you have a nice, big immersion blender, use it to puree the whole thing. If not, divide the sauce into 4-6, maybe more, batches and use a blender or food processor to puree it.

NOTE: If you are using a blender or food processor, cool the sauce before pureeing it. This will make it safer to do so, and it will also allow you to do bigger batches.


I'll let you determine how to store it, but I recommend canning if you aren't planning on using all of the sauce within a week, maybe two. If it's too much for you to be able to store without canning, then I recommend cutting the recipe in half because I don't know how well it'll hold up to freezing.

Just a general note: If I post a recipe that calls for Tomato Sauce, or Red Sauce, chances are that I'm referring to this recipe, so make sure you save it :p