Smoke-roasted Tomato Marinara Sauce

[Jon Des.]

Here's an experiment that came out really well. We had some tomatoes that needed used, and a hot grill last night, so I put 7 halved tomatoes on the grill and roasted indirect for about 90 minutes with a large handful of hickory chips. Tonight, my wife Erin made a simple marinara sauce with them. She sauteed an onion and a few cloves of garlic in EVOO, deglazed the pan with Malbec, added the chopped tomatoes and juice, along with some crushed red peppers and fresh basil and oregano. We also added a fresh tomato just for some extra juice, and seasoned with Srirachi and Parmesan cheese.

Next time, and there will definitely be a next time, I think we'll toss the pasta in the same pan as the sauce before serving. We also considered running the tomatoes through a food mill first.

It ended up being fantastic. Here's some before and after shots.

 

[JimK]

That is some great looking sauce Jon.

 

[Glenn W]

Super fantabulas cook!!!

 

[John Solak]

That looks really good and great idea.

 

[Mac]

Molto Bene!

 

[Jim S]

My tummy is growling..... at 8 am. Why not throw in a dozen cloves of garlic to roast up too? I do that in the oven a couple times a year, I suppose the WSM might be a bit better for flavor.

 

[Wolgast]

Oh man that looks good thx for the inspiration!!

 

[K Kruger]

Very nice!

Since you have a mill, consider running some of the mixture through it after it has cooked just a little while - about 1/3-1/2 of the mix - then return to the pot, stir well, and cook just till combined.

Definitely toss the pasta with the sauce in a pan before serving. When the pasta is done remove 1 cup of the pasta cooking water first, reserve it and then drain the pasta. Turn the heat on the burner you had the pasta on to low or very low if you can go that far, then put the sauce in the pasta pot. Add the drained pasta and toss well. Add a small splash of the reserved pasta water, toss, cover, and allow to sit a minute. Mix again and add a little more reserved water if needed. (When you combine the pasta with the sauce and hold it for a minute or two the pasta will absorb some of the water -and flavor - from the sauce. The pasta cooking water restores some of this water, if needed, and the starch that is in the water helps it to blend better with the sauce.) Adjust salt and pepper if necessary; serve.

Beautiful color in that sauce of yours.

 

[Jon Des.]

Originally posted by Jim S:
My tummy is growling..... at 8 am. Why not throw in a dozen cloves of garlic to roast up too? I do that in the oven a couple times a year, I suppose the WSM might be a bit better for flavor.

Smoke-roasting garlic has a great flavor and makes great garlic bread, among other things. You should definitely try adding a few heads of garlic the next time you smoke something. I usually just peel as much paper off as possible and lightly olive oil it. I keep it on hand practically all the time.

I probably would have used some in this, but we wanted to keep this as close to our normal sauce as possible just to see what difference the tomatoes made.

 

[Jon Des.]

Originally posted by K Kruger:

Definitely toss the pasta with the sauce in a pan before serving. When the pasta is done remove 1 cup of the pasta cooking water first, reserve it and then drain the pasta. Turn the heat on the burner you had the pasta on to low or very low if you can go that far, then put the sauce in the pasta pot. Add the drained pasta and toss well. Add a small splash of the reserved pasta water, toss, cover, and allow to sit a minute. Mix again and add a little more reserved water if needed. (When you combine the pasta with the sauce and hold it for a minute or two the pasta will absorb some of the water -and flavor - from the sauce. The pasta cooking water restores some of this water, if needed, and the starch that is in the water helps it to blend better with the sauce.) Adjust salt and pepper if necessary; serve.

Beautiful color in that sauce of yours.

Thanks Kevin! I also appreciate the explanation of adding cooking water back in. I've seen and done this before but never understood why.