Let’s Make: Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce
For 8 – Recipe from the kitchen of Chef Jonathan Collins

Ingredients

3L Fresh or Canned Roma Tomatoes – rinsed, stemmed and fine dice
3tbsp Tomato Paste
1 cup Carrots – peeled, trimmed and fine dice
1 cup Celery – peeled, trimmed and fine dice
1 cup Yellow Onion – trimmed, peeled and fine dice
1 cup Leek Whites – trimmed, peeled, rinsed and fine dice
2 cups Cremini or White Mushrooms – brushed, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
1pc Garlic Bulb
3tbsp Fresh Thyme – rinsed and leaves stripped
3tbsp Fresh Flat Leaf Parsley – rinsed, leaves stripped and fine sliced
3tbsp Fresh Oregano – rinsed, leaves stripped and fine sliced
2pc Fresh Bay Leaves
500ml Vegetable Stock
250ml Red or White Wine
1tbsp Unsalted Butter
3tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil – plus more to taste
Parmesan Cheese to taste
Flaked Sea Salt to taste
Fresh Ground Black Pepper to taste

Steps

  1. Position rack in center of oven, preheat to 350°F (175°C).
  2. Slice the top off whole garlic bulb just exposing the cloves, place on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle garlic bulb with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, fold foil to cover.
  3. Roast for 45 minutes or until golden brown and tender.
  4. Heat a sauce pan over medium-high heat, add butter and olive oil. Add carrot, celery, onion, leek and mushrooms, season with salt and pepper. Sauté vegetables until golden brown, 10-15 minutes. Move vegetables to one side, exposing the bottom of the pan. Add tomato paste to the bottom of pan, sauté and stir until browned and fragrant, deglaze pan with wine.
  5. Mix ingredients and continue to sauté until wine is reduced and until pan is dry.
  6. Combine tomatoes, thyme, oregano, bay leaves and stock, reduce heat to simmer. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour or until reduced to desired consistency, remove bay leaves.
  7. Squeeze cloves of garlic from the bulb, add Parmesan cheese and stir to combine. If smooth tomato sauce is desired, puree using an immersion blender or food processor.
  8. Check seasoning, add salt and pepper to adjust, finish with parsley.

Began with a saute of the vegetables with butter, salt and tomato paste. Then an add in of roasted garlic, wine, then vegetable stock. Simmer to your preference. I left it very long to boil down and thicken.

Top off of rosemary for fragrance. Then plated, a sprig of basil and a generous dashing of chili flakes. We used Italpasta and added in parmesan cheese. Below you can see what I plated and took picture of, the right is what I ate! Tonight was so much fun, and I definitely will have to Ballarini pans on my list to fill my cupboard with. The recipe is very versatile in terms of what you can add in and what you can opt out of, it can work meaty or meat-free! I’ll definitely be putting it to work again and impressing others with the pasta sauce.

Deep pasta sauces are a dream. I never thought that this type of flavor could be achieved without meat! Stepping into Chef Jonathan Collin’s cooking class with Zwilling and Ballarini, I knew I was in for a treat. We began with getting to know our tools and ingredients. Using the Ballarini Positano 11” Wok (found at Home Outfitters, The Bay and zwilling.ca), I discovered it to be a very versatile size to simmer our sauce and mix in our pasta.

Tonight’s pasta dish would be entirely focused on creating Chef Jonathan Collin’s Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce. As a peek for everyone else who wants to recreate it for themselves, see below! Roast heads of garlic ahead of time and take 15 minutes to cook the sauce, and you have dinner!