Tomatoes in the Winter

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees Toss tomatoes with the olive oil, put in a baking dish and toss them into the oven. Bake them until their skins blacken. You could also add some thin slices of red bell pepper, red onion or whole garlic cloves at this point, if you wish.

Remove the tomatoes from the oven when they’re blackened, allow them to cool slightly and then remove the charred skins, leaving behind delicious, sweetened pulp.

Put the vinegar, maple syrup and garlic into a bowl. Gradually whisk in the oil and tomato juices to make a vinaigrette. Gradually whisking in the oil to the vinegar helps it emulsify. If you add it all at once the oil and vinegar will stay separate and it’s not as great of a dressing.

Taste this and add salt and pepper as desired, then gently mash in the tomatoes.

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat with the chili flakes, garlic and bay leaf, stirring occasionally.

Once the garlic begins to turn lightly golden, add in the tomatoes and their juice.

Allow the tomato sauce to simmer until the tomatoes begin to naturally break apart. Depending on the quality of tomatoes this can take 20 minutes or more than an hour.

Puree or mash the tomatoes to your desired consistency and add tomato paste to thicken, if necessary.

Since canned tomatoes can be a touch acidic, add sugar to balance and season with salt to taste.