(photo: Strozzapreti, or priest choker pasta, with our homemade tomato sauce)
I've been asked by a few readers to post a traditional tomato sauce recipe and I've included one below that uses crushed, uncooked, tomatoes from our annual Fall tomato canning. Tomato sauce is easy to make and incredibly versatile. I use tomato sauce for pasta, other sauces, soups, etc. Making homemade sauce is a no-brainer, so don't purchase the canned variety at your local supermarket. Plus, our recipe comes from Calabria, Italy! Here's the quick recipe:
(photo: making the raw product: this is basically crushed plum tomatoes that are canned in the late Summer and is the base for my tomato sauce)
(photo: passato from Fall tomato canning, this is not yet tomato sauce as it needs to be cooked with onion, garlic, and herbs/spices)
Ingredients:
- 1 large mason jar of homemade crushed, plum, tomatoes (uncooked) or 2, 28 ounce cans of crushed San Marzano tomatoes. If the price doesn't blow your budget, opt for canned San Marzano tomatoes from Italy (San Marzano and Cento both use tomatoes from Italy). The tomatoes I crush in the summer for canning are from plum or roma varieties from California.
- 1 large red onion finely diced
- 1-2 garlic cloves finely diced
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil (for sautéing onion and garlic, click here for a review of olive oils)
- 1 teaspoon of sugar (optional if you have superb tomatoes, standard for all other tomatoes)
- 1 teaspoon dried Oregano (if you can find the imported kind from Italy it will make a difference)
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
(photo: simple ingredients for a simple tomato sauce: dried oregano from Calabria, garlic, red onion, kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper)
Process:
Start with a medium sized pot with a lid - Le Creuset makes a nice 8.5 round casserole pot but you don't have to get fancy (any pot will do). Begin to heat your pot and thereafter (about 4-5 minutes later) add the finely diced onions and garlic (along with a bit of salt and pepper).
Sautee the onions and garlic until the mixture becomes translucent and, thereafter, add the crushed tomatoes and stir well. Bring the mixture to a boil and then set your heat to simmer. Next, add the sugar, dried oregano, pepper, and salt to your pot and mix well. Let the mixture simmer for 35-45 minutes without the lid (you can keep the lid on but your sauce will become a bit thicker). You'll want to mix the sauce every 15 minutes or so. Some folks let tomato sauce simmer "for hours", but I haven't found that a longer cooking period increases flavor (what it does do is turn tomato sauce into thick gravy, which isn't very appealing in my book).
Once the sauce has finished cooking transfer the contents of the pot to a food mill; note, the food mill should sit on a large bowl to catch the processed tomato sauce (I like to do this in the sink so I don't make a mess). A food mill is a great, inexpensive, tool and it yields a perfect consistency for tomatoe sauce (and also opens up the flavor of all the ingredients). The brand I like is called, Mouli; I see this mill all over Italy and for $39.99 it's a great product!
(photo: the mighty food mill, a kitchen staple and necessary for any good tomato sauce; note you don't need to use a mill if, for example, you have excellent plum tomatoes during the late summer months. With a fresh tomato sauce, simply crush plum tomatoes (removing seeds) and cook with garlic and olive oil)
That's it, you're done with making homemade tomato sauce! Note if you want to turn the above tomato sauce recipe into a "meat sauce" simply use your pot to brown 4-5 pork spare ribs, 6-7 medium sized meatballs, and 4-5 links of pork sausage. You'll want to remove the meat after browning and begin sautéing the onion and garlic mixture. Add the meat to your pot after adding the seasonings and cook the entire 45 minute time period (the key with getting a flavorful sauce via meat is to brown the ribs, meatballs, and sausage well).
Related Links:
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