Roast Tomato, Garlic and Caper Pasta Sauce

Tomatoes are everywhere and I couldn’t be more thrilled! It means my Roast Tomato, Garlic and Caper Pasta sauce is on our weekly menu!

Throughout the summer, if I am going to attempt to grow tomatoes, I choose cherry varieties.

Larger tomatoes that take longer to grow and ripen are much more susceptible to blossom end rot in my hot, dry, windy conditions. I grow larger tomatoes in the early spring before the heat arrives, even if they are a little slower to ripen and don’t always yield as well.

This time of year we are often overrun with a glut of these little tomatoes, which is one of my favourite problems to have in the whole world.

If you don’t grow cherry tomatoes at home, you will find them in abundance at your local farmers market, often very reasonably priced.

The other plant that thrives in the heat of summer would be my caper bushes.

This year, I had a great crop, but I also missed much of it because I did not make a habit of picking the caper buds every day.

Caper buds are an unopened flower so once they bloom, you have to wait for the young caperberry. Large, more mature caperberries contain unpleasantly bitter seeds and are inedible. So while I didn’t collect many capers, I collected plenty of caper seeds this year!

This pasta sauce combines both of summer’s bounty into a delicious, easy to prepare sauce. It is our favourite pasta sauce, perfect for making in bulk and freezing for the months when you feel nostalgia for summer.

This recipe calls for Plant Parmesan. You can find the recipe for Plant Parmesan in the Plant-Based Pantry Essentials Guide which is available to download for free in A Farm of Your Home’s exclusive Subscriber Resource Library.

If you don’t have access, don’t worry! Sign up now to gain the password and head over to the Subscriber Resource Library to see a collection of downloadable guides, journals, checklists and a bunch of really useful plant-based information!

Roasted Tomato, Garlic and Caper Sauce.

You will need

• 4 punnets or approximately 800g-1kg of very ripe cherry tomatoes
• 1-2 heads of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• 1 cup of white wine or 1/4 cup of verjuice mixed with 3/4 cup of water.
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable stock powder
• 1/3 cup of capers
• Fresh sprigs of thyme
• Vegan Parmesan to serve.

Preparation

This recipe can be double or tripled depending on your tomato supply and it freezes very well.

Put your cherry tomatoes in a large oven proof pan or pot.

Divide and peel a whole head of garlic, or two if you adore garlic as I do!

Tuck the whole garlic cloves under the whole tomatoes. Generously slosh the olive oil, making sure all the tomatoes and garlic cloves are well coated.

Heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and put the pan with the tomatoes on the top rack. After 30 minutes, check the pan, the tomatoes should be roasting and collapsing, releasing their juices. The whole garlic cloves will braise in the tomato juice and become soft as they cook.

If your garlic is still opaque and firm, or you want more roasted caramelising of your tomatoes, return to the oven. Check on sauce every 15 minutes until you are happy with the colour of your roasted tomatoes.

Remove the pan from the oven and using the back of a spoon, carefully squash all your roasted garlic cloves and stir to distribute through the sauce.

Add 1 glass of white wine or 1/4 cup of verjuice and 3/4 cup of water.

Pinch the leaves off a few sprigs of thyme, and stir through the sauce.

Stir a tablespoon of Vegetable Scrap Stock Concentrate or 2 teaspoons of powdered vegetable stock dissolved in 100ml of water.

Drain and rinse 1/3 cup of capers and add to sauce.

Return to the oven for 15 minutes to cook.

Cook your preferred pasta in a large pot of salted water and drain.

Add pasta sauce to pasta and stir through, serve immediately with plenty of Vegan Parmesan to taste!

I hope you enjoy this Roast Tomato, Caper and Garlic sauce!

This sauce is great served with other roasted vegetables, or served as a bruschetta topping on my favourite olive sourdough bread.

I love to hear from you, feel free to leave a comment below!