The Best Sauce Ever. Yep.

I know it sounds like big talk - just having one tomato sauce recipe for every purpose, but I tell you, it's just that good. In fact, it's known in my house as The Best Sauce Ever. Yep. and I believe that it is. 

I've used this sauce to toss with pasta, gnocchi, in lasagna, in eggplant Parmesan, over ravioli, mixed with chopped greens like chard and kale, simmered with some meatballs and - I won't lie to you - I've even just eaten it with a spoon.

For the past five years I have loved no other tomato sauce and life has been great.

I dare you to make this sauce with your homegrown tomatoes and then try to tell me it's not the tastiest tomato sauce you've ever eaten. 

I DOUBLE DARE YOU.

The Best Sauce Ever. Yep.

Ingredients:
4-5 large ripe fresh garden tomatoes, sliced into 1" rounds
4 good sized fresh basil leaves
1 head of garlic, top chopped off
1/3 cup red wine (I usually use a Cabernet)
Kosher salt
Fresh ground pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

To make:
Preheat oven to 450.

Cover a rimmed baking sheet with foil and then coat the foil with some olive oil. 

Place the prepped garlic head on another piece of foil and drizzle some oil on the top cut end of the garlic and add a bit of salt. Wrap the foil around it into a nice package. Put it in the middle of the baking sheet.

Place your tomato rounds in a single layer on the baking sheet around the garlic. Drizzle all the tomatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper. 

Roast it all into the oven for 30 minutes.

That blackness is what you want to see when you take the tomatoes out of the oven.

Pull out the food processor and add all the tomatoes (they'll be a bit charred and maybe a little grabby when trying to peel them from the foil - try hard). Unwrap the garlic and squeeze in the cloves (they'll be like paste - it's cool). Add the wine, basil and salt/pepper as you like it.

Puree the whole mess until it's one even consistency and no giant basil bits are jamming around in there.

Like I said before, you can toss it with some pasta, stew it with some meatballs, add a bit of cream and serve over gnocchi - seriously, whatever. Or just eat it out of the Cuisinart with your spoon because it's so good you won't care that you just ate sauce for dinner while standing in the kitchen.