Roasted Tomato Cream Sauce with Pasta!

Submitted by Amanda on Sat, 12/01/2012 - 17:47

This past fall I had the pleasure of attending a pasta-making course at my husband's place of employment. It was a delightful experience as I grew up making pasta but had never had the opportunity to use a pasta maker; my grandmother hand-rolled all her pasta dough. I was excited to try this *new* way of making pasta!

In addition to make the pasta noodles, we also got to learn a couple different sauce styles. My absolute favorite was the Roasted Tomato Cream Sauce. It is incredible!! Thus, I share it with you so that you too may enjoy the flavors of cream sauce and roasted tomato with your next pasta meal.

NOTE: You will want to plan about 3 hours ahead for this meal if you do not have roasted tomatoes yet as the roasting process takes a while to concentrate the flavor.

Ingredients for Roasted Tomatoes:
5-8 medium roma tomatoes
Olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Ingredients for Cream Sauce:
2 tbsp onions, minced with cheese grater
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 cup dry white wine (we used a Pinot Grigio and it turned out fabulous!)
1.25 cups fat free Half-and-Half (or heavy whipping cream)
1 to 1.25 cups roasted tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions for Roasting Tomatoes and Cream Sauce:
Cut the tomatoes into 1-inch wide pieces and lay on a baking sheet. Brush each tomato piece with olive oil. Then sprinkle salt and pepper over the top.

Bake in the oven at 250F for 2-3 hours or until tomatoes are dried and start to shrivel.

Using a cheese grater, mince the onion into a medium saucepan until there are about 2 tablespoons worth. Add about 1 teaspoon of pressed garlic. Add the wine and cook over a medium-high heat until reduced to about two tablespoons.

Add the half-and-half and cook until thickened.

Place roasted tomatoes and cream sauce in a blender. Blend until smooth and pour back into saucepan.

Bring tomato cream sauce mixture to a simmer, adding salt and pepper to taste. For extra flavor, add half a cup more of the whole roasted tomatoes to the sauce.

Serve this incredible sauce over a bed of your favorite pasta! Your house will smell incredible all day and your stomach will thank you for this delicious meal. Enjoy!