Preheat your oven to 400ºF.

Cut tomatoes in half and place on a parchment lined baking sheet cut side down. It will take several baking trays to do all 12lbs.

Put the trays in the oven and set the timer for one hour.

Meanwhile, cut the tips off the garlic heads and drizzle with a teaspoon of olive oil. (The less oil you use the longer it will last in storage, so less is more here) Wrap garlic completely and tightly with foil. Place on one of the baking trays in the oven and let cook for the rest of the hour bake.

While the tomatoes and garlic are roasting take the diced onion and sauté it in a skillet on medium heat until soft. You can also chop up and measure the herbs as you wait.

When the timer beeps for the tomatoes, pull out the trays and set the garlic aside. Run the tomatoes through a food mill or sauce maker and then pour it all in a large mixing bowl. The one I use can be found HERE, it's a good one. See note below for alternative method if you don't have a food mill.

Then place cooked onions in a blender, squeeze out all the roasted garlic into the blender, and add a cup of tomato sauce. Blend throughly.

Pour the blended onion/garlic sauce into the bowl with the roasted tomato sauce. Add salt, pepper, basil, oregano, sugar, and red wine vinegar. Stir.

No need to heat it up, pour directly into freeze dryer trays. It should fit into four medium size trays.

Place directly into your freeze dryer or alternatively, freeze in a freezer then place in freeze dryer. We prefer to do the latter. Follow the instructions on the freeze dryer display to freeze dry.

After the freeze dryer is finished drying take out the trays and flip them onto a baking sheet. Crush with a rolling pin just enough to get it to easily fit in mason jars or mylar bags. We didn't blend it because we wanted chopped herbs left in larger bits in the sauce upon rehydration.

Package and store. There are several options, here is what we do. When we use mylar bags we add an oxygen absorber and seal with an impulse sealer. If we use mason jars you could also use an oxygen absorber or you can use a vacuum sealer for jars.

Rehydration: Heat water to a simmer. Pour the amount of sauce you'd like in a bowl. Slowly add the water and stir until it becomes the thickness and consistency you desire.