Tomato Pasta Sauce Recipes please

[wombleatwimbledon]

Give me your favourite tomato sauces please

I have a slow cooker and pressure cooker

[RioG]

Give me your favourite tomato sauces please

I have a slow cooker and pressure cooker

Tomatoes... basil... oregano... carrots... lots of onions.  I just put in heaps of tomatoes and onions and carrots and the rest to taste.

If you like tomato soup:

Chicken stock
Tomatoes
Onions
Ground cloves
Carrots or sugar to taste (if you use carrots you can eliminate sugar often)

Cook everything for a while, skin on tomatoes, then blend and push through a sieve to strain and get the pulp out.  SO GOOD.

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[merigayle]

I do onions, garlic, tomatoes, salt basil. That's it. I put it thru a food mill before adding basil because DD and BF like smooth sauce.

[Run Amok]

This is our favorite. Super simple.

https://food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter

[DocBuzzkill]

A few years ago, I made tomato sauce based on the process described in Serious Eats:

How to Make the Best Tomato Sauce From Fresh Tomatoes

And I took pictures!

Tomatoes from the local farmers' market


Prepping to make tomato paste (yes, I made tomato paste)


Ready to pastify (long slow cook in the oven)


Tomatoes in my largest stock pot for the main sauce


End result from all those tomatoes


The sauce was amazingly good.  Like tasting August sunshine. I froze some for eating in the depths of February.

Would I do it again?  No.  On the other hand, if I had a large garden with a shit-ton of tomatoes of different varieties, including paste tomatoes, I might.

I use a from-memory marinara sauce recipe similar to the one RA posted.   

2 to 3 T olive oil
3 to 6 minced garlic cloves
1 medium onion finely chopped
1 T dried oregano
2 tsp dried basil
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 heaping T of tomato paste
28 ounce can whole tomatoes (I really like these, which I buy at our local Italian market/butcher's)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Fresh parsley, chopped (about 1 T or more)
Fresh basil leaves, chiffonade (1 to 2 T)

Drain tomatoes and their liquid into a large bowl and squish the tomatoes with your hands.  In a saucepan, sauté garlic and onion in oil over medium-low heat until onion is translucent and garlic is golden-brown. Add dried herbs and pepper flakes, sauté for about a minute. Add tomato paste, stir well, and cook for a couple of minutes.  Add squished tomatoes and their juice to the saucepan and mix well.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  bring to a boil then turn down heat to a simmer.  Let cook uncovered over low heat for at least 30 minutes, stirring periodically.  When thickened sufficiently, remove from heat, add fresh parsley and basil, then serve.

I've never prepared marinara sauce using a pressure cooker or slow cooker, so I'm no help there.

[RioG]

Thanks for that doc, I'm going to give that recipe a try.  I've always wanted to make and freeze paste.  One year I did make pizza sauce, but it must not have involved paste (or I have made it but can't remember...)

It is death by tomato season here, yet again.  4 - 6 weeks of guilt for letting any go to waste in the garden

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[DocBuzzkill]

Thanks for that doc, I'm going to give that recipe a try.  I've always wanted to make and freeze paste.  One year I did make pizza sauce, but it must not have involved paste (or I have made it but can't remember...)

It is death by tomato season here, yet again.  4 - 6 weeks of guilt for letting any go to waste in the garden

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Heh.  I was totally thinking of you when I posted that Serious Eats recipe as well as the comment about having a shit-ton of tomatoes in a big garden.

The paste was awesome.  Much more depth of flavor than canned or tube paste.  Make sure to add the sprig of tomato leaves to the sauce, too. Really elevates the "tomato-y" flavor. 

[rocketgirl]

I recently grilled some tomatoes in foil with olive oil, fresh basil, and some garlic salt and they came out really saucy - like I could spread it on bread almost.  (I might have had some carmelized onion in there; can't remember). I think I'm going to find a solid grill pan of some sort and make sauce on the grill.  It was SO GOOD.

Normally, I make a puttanesca on the stove, and it's not a real "sauce" consistency.  That's olive oil, then anchovies (if I have any; I've been known to dash in some fish sauce if I don't), then the garlic, then the capers, diced tomatoes from a can, whatever fresh grape tomatoes I have from the garden, sliced kalamata olives, basil, salt, red pepper flakes, and often throw in some spinach leaves (because it doesn't change the flavor and it's something green) or Italian parsley if I have some in the garden.

I've never actually tried to make a true sauce, but after what happened on the grill, I'm game.  Maybe small quantity for pizza or something.  (I don't usually put a red sauce when I make pizza.)

[diablita]

Your sauce recipe sounds delicious

[RioG]

So this thread inspired me to make some sauce for dinner yesterday.  Tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, green peppers, basil.   Every bit from my garden and it was So Good.

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[radial]

One year, back before I knew better than to plant 12 towering tomato plants for a family of two, I had a shit ton of tomatoes to process.  By the time I was done, half the pantry was taken up with jars of canned tomatoes.  We feasted on them for months.  They were SO much better than anything you could buy at the grocery store!  But that's the only year I ever canned tomatoes.  This city boy was so traumatized by the sheer magnitude of dealing with that much produce that I never tried it again. 

[RioG]

One year, back before I knew better than to plant 12 towering tomato plants for a family of two, I had a shit ton of tomatoes to process.  By the time I was done, half the pantry was taken up with jars of canned tomatoes.  We feasted on them for months.  They were SO much better than anything you could buy at the grocery store!  But that's the only year I ever canned tomatoes.  This city boy was so traumatized by the sheer magnitude of dealing with that much produce that I never tried it again.

  this is me every year.

I've done 6 quart jars of tomatoes, 8 pints of salsa (dh did those), 6 quarts jars of tomato basil sauce... and there's no end in sight even though I REALLY dialed back the tomato production this year.

[Natasha]

I just watched this last night.... https://www.ted.com/talks/malcolm_gladwell_choice_happiness_and_spaghetti_sauce

[redkitty]

Doc or anyone else who tried that longer recipe above...I have a question about the basil at the end...Do you just throw it in the sauce whole? Do you chop it up and put it in? If it is whole, do you then remove it after it has "steeped" a little?

[DocBuzzkill]

Doc or anyone else who tried that longer recipe above...I have a question about the basil at the end...Do you just throw it in the sauce whole? Do you chop it up and put it in? If it is whole, do you then remove it after it has "steeped" a little?

Do you mean the Serious Eats recipe?  You put a whole sprig of basil (leaves and stem) in the sauce and let it steep for 5 to 10 min, then fish it out.    The Serious Eats recipe calls for adding a small sprig of green tomato stem w/ about 5 leaves in addition to the sprig of basil, also steeping for 5 min then removing.  I tried that, and it was actually good! The tomato leaves add a subtle "green tomato" flavor. 

[redkitty]

Do you mean the Serious Eats recipe?  You put a whole sprig of basil (leaves and stem) in the sauce and let it steep for 5 to 10 min, then fish it out.    The Serious Eats recipe calls for adding a small sprig of green tomato stem w/ about 5 leaves in addition to the sprig of basil, also steeping for 5 min then removing.  I tried that, and it was actually good! The tomato leaves add a subtle "green tomato" flavor. 

Yes that recipe. Thanks. For some unknown reason my tomato plants have died, so I don't have any tomato leaves to put into the sauce. The few that are left, well, I suspect the plants got pesticide on them so I wouldn't use those. But I have plenty of basil. I might attempt this recipe later today or maybe tomorrow morning. My CSA tomatoes came yesterday....30 lbs (though to be they look like beefsteak tomatoes so I will have to cook off for a long time.)

[DocBuzzkill]

Yes that recipe. Thanks. For some unknown reason my tomato plants have died, so I don't have any tomato leaves to put into the sauce. The few that are left, well, I suspect the plants got pesticide on them so I wouldn't use those. But I have plenty of basil. I might attempt this recipe later today or maybe tomorrow morning. My CSA tomatoes came yesterday....30 lbs (though to be they look like beefsteak tomatoes so I will have to cook off for a long time.)

 

It's a labor intensive sauce recipe, but even trying it once is worth it.  The sprig of basil will be great!  The summer I made that recipe, I had a patio tomato with no pesticides whatsoever so I was fine with using a sprig from that plant.  The squirrels got to the tomatoes before I did!

[redkitty]

Ok I finished. The paste made a huge difference in the end product. It did take forever, though. I think I’d prefer a saucing tomato. If I do this ever again I’m also buying an electric food mill. My arms are tired. I got about a gallon.

We will be eating pasta tomorrow.


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