Roasted Yellow Tomato Sauce over Whole Wheat Rotini

Roasted Yellow Tomato Sauce over Whole Wheat Rotini

We are fortunate to live in an area where there are deliveries of out of date and blemished produce and bread products donated by local grocery stores which are distributed to homeless shelters, then to mobile home parks a few times a week.

Our mobile home park is the last stop on the route and anything not taken by the residents of our park will be put into the dumpster.  Everyone else takes the doughnuts and cheese bread before the delivery gets to our park and all that's left for us is blemished veggies and whole grain breads and sometimes even silken tofu.  Perfect!  We always give the guy making the delivery a few dollars to help put gas in his truck.

We never know what will be in the truck when the delivery gets to us, and it's always fun to figure out what to do with the sometimes exotic blemished fruits and vegetables we get.

The last delivery included about 5 pounds of yellow tomatoes, most of which were pretty soft and needed to be eaten or cooked soon.  I washed them, wrapped them in parchment paper and put them into a large baking pan, roasting at 350°F for 45 minutes, then let them cool enough to handle so we could remove the skins.

We blended them and refrigerated them until I could take time to make a sauce.  At this point the tomatoes could be frozen but I wanted to make a pasta sauce soon.

We already had some out of date basil that had been saved from demise by picking through the packages of fresh leaves to save what we could, washing well, steaming, then freezing in portions until we had a chance to use it.  We had some whole wheat rotini pasta from another of the food deliveries to our park, so I cooked that to put the sauce over.  It's topped with vegan Parmesan "cheese" which I make at home.

I put the various food gifts together for our dinner tonight.

Roasted Yellow Tomato Sauce over Whole Wheat Rotini

2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar

1 onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tsp. salt, divided

5 lbs. yellow tomatoes, roasted, skins removed

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste

1 cup salsa

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

2 tsp. dried basil or 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped

1 tsp. oregano

1 tsp. thyme

1 tsp. crushed red pepper (optional)

1 lb. dry whole wheat rotini pasta

Heat the balsamic vinegar in a large pot over medium heat, then saute the chopped onion and minced garlic, until onion is translucent, sprinkling a teaspoon of salt over the onions and garlic while sauteing.

Add the crushed yellow tomatoes, tomato paste, salsa, nutritional yeast, basil, oregano, thyme, crushed red pepper, remaining teaspoon of salt, and black pepper.  Cook over medium low heat for about 10 minutes, then use a stick blender to make a smooth sauce.  Leave to simmer over low heat while the pasta is cooking.

Cook the pasta according to package directions and top with sauce and top with vegan Parmesan "cheese".