Best Tomato Sauce. Ever.

What can I say about this sauce other than it’s perfect. It’s the easiest sauce in the world to make and has an infinite number of applications. In fact, it’s so instrumental to my repertoire that once I’m down to my last half cup, I have to make more, right then and there. It was the first and still is the only tomato sauce my daughter will eat. In short, it’s my jam.

Where or when this recipe was developed I can’t say. I’ve seen countless versions of it over the years, each with a different source credit. Mine is based on a recipe from the quirky and brilliant red-headed Italian, Mario Balati. What makes this sauce stand apart from the rest is treatment of the onion. Instead of dicing the onion necessitating a puree of the sauce to finish, the onion simply “sweats” out all of it’s savory goodness over the hour and a half simmering period. Brilliant, efficient and perfect for those who avoid doing dishes where and whenever possible. This baby is a 10 minute prep, one-pot wonder.

“Basic” Tomato Sauce

adapted from Mario Batali, the Babbo Cookbook / about makes two cups

Active Time: 10 minutes / Cooking Time: 1.5 hours

For the Sauce:

1 28 oz. can of whole roma tomotoes ( I prefer Thomas’ Utopia Organic)
1 lg yellow onion, peeled and cut in half (dissecting the core)
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tbsp tomato paste
3 tbsp Earth Balance Buttery Stick
3 bay leaves, dried (double if using fresh)
2 finger pinch, fennel seeds
2 finger pinch, dried red chilis
2 finger pinch of raw sugar
sea salt and freshly cracked pepper to taste

Method:

1. Trim the top of the onion and as little of the bottom of the as possible, preserving the “core”, peel and cut in half. (both halves should remain intact). Smash the cloves of garlic using your palm and the back of your knife then peel off the skins.
2. In a medium sauce pan over medium heat combine Earth Balance, onion halves, garlic, tomato paste and bay leaves.
3. Once Earth balance has completely melted, Open the tin of tomatoes and squeeze/squish each of the romas through your fingers to create a roughly torn texture.

NOTE: This is really fun to do with kids, just as long as you don’t mind the mess. Bella has been making this with me since her second birthday.

4. Dispose of the remaining tomato juice, add fennel seeds, chilies, salt and pepper to taste and give the pot a gentle stir. Reduce the heat to medium low and walk away. Your work is done for the next 1.5 hours. All the sauce should be doing is bubbling, reducing and becoming a brilliant base for anything and everything you can dream up.

Note: If you’re cooking this on a gas stove, the sauce will only need to simmer over low heat for about 45 -55 minutes. if you find you’ve overshot the mark a little and the sauce is on the dry/pasty side, rehydrate the sauce with water, leftover tomato juice or white wine a tablespoon at a time until you’ve achieved your desired liquidity level.

5. After the 1.5 hours has passed, fish out the onion, garlic cloves and bay leaves and taste for seasoning levels. If the sauce is on the acidic side, add the pinch of sugar. You may also need to add a little more salt and pepper but otherwise, you’re done.

If you’re not eating it immediately. Let is cool down to room temperature and store in an airtight container. The sauce should hold in the refrigerator for about a week but honestly, I’ve never had to test it so I can’t say for sure.

This sauce works brilliantly on just about everything so use your imagination. I use it regularly as a pizza sauce, in layers of veggie lasagna, topping for eggplant parmesan and it makes a brilliant base for pasta sauces – just add roasted vegetables or mix of sauteed mushrooms and you’re good to go!