Tomato paste, to taste (optional -- adds color and thickness)
Instructions
Wash cherry tomatoes, remove stems, and divide evenly into two 9x13 baking dishes.
Peel and chop onion into chunks and add half to each dish.
Peel garlic cloves, adding half to each dish.
Sprinkle each pan with sea salt, drizzle with olive oil, and add coarsely chopped fresh basil and oregano leaves to taste.
Roast tomatoes for 40 minutes at 400 degrees, or until they're nice and wrinkled.
Let cool off some, then use a slotted spoon to add the tomatoes and veggies into your food processor. (I have a 7 cup food processor so did mine in two batches; each pan separately.)
At this point I also added 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper to each batch to counteract some of the sweetness from the tomatoes and onion -- it's still a sweet sauce, but needed a little more balance. (You can also add your optional tomato paste here, as well.)
Blend until the marinara sauce is at your desired texture, then serve or freeze.
Notes
This is a forgiving recipe! Maybe you picked eight or nine cups today, or maybe you have regular yellow onions instead of sweet, or dried basil instead of fresh. Everything here is to taste, and no batch will come out exactly the same — but it’s all good. That’s the fun of making your own, and it turns out so much fresher and more flavorful than the jarred kind.