For this recipe, you will need:
– Two dozen ripe vine tomatoes
– Eight piquillo peppers
– A single whole garlic head
– Ten tablespoons of olive oil
– Three tablespoons of tomato paste
– Two tablespoons of caster sugar
– A tablespoon of dried chilli flakes
– Sea salt
– Three to four chopped sprigs of flat parsley
Begin by preheating your oven to 120 degrees Celsius and lining a sizeable oven tray with aluminium foil.
Next, halve the tomatoes and position them cut-side up on the tray you prepared. Take the piquillo peppers, slice them lengthwise, remove the stem and seeds with caution, and then place them on the tray along with the tomatoes. Find a space for the entire garlic bulb on the same tray as well.
Now, blend the olive oil, tomato paste, sugar and chilli flakes in a bowl, adding a good amount of sea salt. Whisk manually to combine. Drizzle this mixture over the tomatoes and peppers and roast in the oven for four hours at 120 degrees Celsius until the tomatoes get a leathery texture and have reduced in size.
When this happens, take out the tray from the oven. Use a serrated knife to cut off the thicker end of the garlic bulb and squeeze out the roasted garlic pulp into a blender. Incorporate the tomatoes, peppers, all the sauce and juices from the tray, and some chopped parsley into the blender. Check and amend the seasoning with more sea salt if necessary.
Transfer the sauce to a large jar. It can be kept in the fridge for several days.
Whenever you cook pasta, gently heat the sauce in a small pot, adding a small amount of pasta water if needed to slightly thin the sauce.