Killer tomato sauce!

Deadly Sushi

Formerly The Giant Mojito
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small carrot or 1/2 large carrot, finely chopped
1 small stalk of celery, including the green tops, finely chopped
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried basil or 2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes, including the juice, or 1 3/4 pound of fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 Heat olive oil in a large wide skillet on medium heat. Add the chopped onion, carrot, celery and parsley. Stir to coat. Reduce the heat to low, cover the skillet and cook for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until the vegetables are softened and cooked through.
basic-tomato-sauce-1.jpg
basic-tomato-sauce-2.jpg

2 Remove cover and add the minced garlic. Increase the heat to medium high. Cook for garlic for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, including the juice and shredding them with your fingers if you are using canned whole tomatoes. Add the tomato paste and the basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a low simmer, reduce the heat to low and cook, uncovered until thickened, about 15 minutes. If you want you can push the sauce through a food mill to give it a smooth consistency.
 

joec

New member
Gold Site Supporter
Here is mine that I make every other week. Being Italian decent we eat a lot of it too. Now I make it pretty much as my grandmother did so bare with me on measurements as I really don't measure much of this stuff so I'm guessing.

2 - 28oz cans of San Marzano whole pealed tomatoes.
1 - 14 oz can of diced tomatoes (I use Hunt's because it is easy to find)
1 - small can Tomato paste (what ever brand you like)
1 - large yellow onion diced
1 - large bell pepper diced (pick any color you like)

1 small can tomato paste can filled about 3/4 of the way with Cabernet Sauvignon wine or some other wine you can drink. I find white wines a bit too dry and some reds too sweet.
Crushed red pepper, salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Oregano, Italian seasoning mix.
Fresh basil and flat leaf parsley in equal amounts about a 1/4 cup.
4 to 6 cloves of diced garlic (this is really to your tastes).
Olive oil to sauté the onions and bell pepper.

I use an 8 quart stock pot preheated to medium heat then add olive oil (extra virgin is what I use). Sauté the onions and bell pepper until soft and translucent. I add the tomato paste at this point mixing it with onions and bell pepper then add the tomato paste can of wine. I now add the garlic and let it come back to heat. I now add the whole tomatoes 1 can at a time crushing them as I add them. I add them slowly to keep the heat up. I then add the crushed tomato and let come to a heat that makes popping bubbles on the surface. At this point I add the oregano and Italian seasoning mix and stir it every few minutes. I let this cook about 30 minutes to an hours stirring it every few minutes keeping the heat where the sauce just simmers. At this point I add the basil and parsley and mix it in. After about 30 more minutes of stirring every few minutes I use a stick blender to thin out the sauce a bit to get the consistency I like, thick but not chunky. I now turn down the heat low and test the seasoning adding more if necessary. I let this go about another 15 minutes or so. Now I bottle this up in 1 quart bell jars and refrigerate for use. It will keep about a month in the refrigerator and 3 months frozen. When I use it I add the amount I want to a pan and heat it up on low heat and if too thick I will add a little of the salted pasta water to it.
 

Doc

Administrator
Staff member
Gold Site Supporter
ummmmm good stuff guys. Thanks for sharing. :thumb:
Both sound GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Fisher's Mom

Mother Superior
Super Site Supporter
OK - since everyone is making confessions - here's mine. I have never made pasta sauce.:hide: It's been Ragu Traditional in my house forever and we have pasta at least twice a week. I think it's about time for me to put on my big girl pants and make some sauce! Both of these sound good so maybe I'll make a batch of each.
 

Cooksie

Well-known member
Site Supporter
OK - since everyone is making confessions - here's mine. I have never made pasta sauce.:hide: It's been Ragu Traditional in my house forever and we have pasta at least twice a week. I think it's about time for me to put on my big girl pants and make some sauce! Both of these sound good so maybe I'll make a batch of each.

I think you'll be really glad you did. I always make the sauce but use..sshhhhh....frozen meatballs.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
OK - since everyone is making confessions - here's mine. I have never made pasta sauce.:hide: It's been Ragu Traditional in my house forever and we have pasta at least twice a week. I think it's about time for me to put on my big girl pants and make some sauce! Both of these sound good so maybe I'll make a batch of each.

well, not to be ornery, but you might need to define "pasta sauce" a bit more precisely.

the typical pasta sauce aka marina is a fine puree of good tomatoes cooked down (tomato have a lot of water . . .) for hours. and nicely seasoned. it's a labor of love because it does take a lot of time.

for many dishes I prefer a "chunky style" - got seeds, got skin, got pulp, just cooked down to remove the water.

now for my tomato sauces, I only use tomatoes I've grown or alternately stuff from local farms - vine ripe in the basket - I can usually pick up half a bushel of "canners" (they have blemishes, not pretty for slicers, you lose some...) for $5 - makes about 15 quarts of frozen stuff.

I would not waste my time making tomato sauce from store bought tomatoes.

the big advantage I find in "making your own" is the lack of sugar, salt, additives, flavor enhancers, preservatives, <whatever> - the homemade stuff is fresh and crisp tasting - you can actually taste the blinking tomato! you can put in what you want, based on your tastes.

pretty tricky to remove (some) sugar from Ragu. I'm using Ragu Traditional for meatball sandwiches tonight. ingredient list is: pureed tomato, vegetable oil, salt, sugar. it goes by weight % ....

the bad news is, just used up my last 2 quarts of home grown/froze tomatoes for shrimp creole last night . . .
 

Fisher's Mom

Mother Superior
Super Site Supporter
Would you have a recipe to share for the marinara sauce you favor, Chowder? I don't mind spending some hours making a huge batch of it - I could freeze meal size portions, right?
 

lifesaver91958

Queen of the Jungle
Gold Site Supporter
My pasta sauce is simular to the first one above only I also add lemon juice, red burgandy wine and mushrooms.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
Would you have a recipe to share for the marinara sauce you favor, Chowder? I don't mind spending some hours making a huge batch of it - I could freeze meal size portions, right?

at freezing time don't really have a specific recipe per se.
when the tomatoes start coming in, one tends to drown in them. that's when I go into "put 'em up" mode.

to about 90% I just chunk up the tomatoes - skin, seeds and all - in a big pot, add diced green pepper or banana pepper, onion or leek (depends on what's overflowing in the garden . . .) a tiny pinch of salt, and cook the pot down thick stewed tomato consistency. freeze in quart bags.

the other 10% I do without peppers/onions - just tomato.

that forms my freezer larder of "tomato goodies" for further dishes - I don't even think about "what I'm going to make with it" at the cook down/freeze point.

in concept it's really not too different from buying canned crushed/stewed tomatoes at the store - except of course they taste better and don't have any sugar/preservatives, "artifical color & flavor", yadda yadda and only a pinch of salt.

for a smooth marinara type sauce I thaw/cook them down a bit more, run through the old fashion hand cranked "food mill" (it's older than I am!) to squish out the seeds / whatever. the result needs to cook down a bit more and that's when the seasoning comes in - which is dependent on the dish under construction. basil, thyme, parsley, chives, garlic, rosemary, paprika, cumin, oregano - whatever I'm in the mood for & beef / chicken / lamb / pork. the nice part is you can put in fresh herbs as you finish up the dish - that's a real bright spot in the winter.

then salt/pepper, pepper flakes, cayenne, chili to taste -whatever floats your tomato [g]

the family does notice when the garden stuff is gone and I have to shift to store supplies . . .

don't recall if it was here I did my pizza rant, but I've never been a big pizza fan. BUT in the last year or so we've gotten into homemade dough (I use Jamie Oliver's rx w/ semolina) - frozen chunky tomato sauce and toppings. it's a whole different pizza experience.
 

Fisher's Mom

Mother Superior
Super Site Supporter
Ok - this makes sense, Chowder. I get a ton of tomatoes, cook the heck out of them, run them through a food mill, cook them some more, and then use the end product as the base for the sauce.

Do you cook or brown any meats you are adding before you put them in the sauce?

I make pizzas at home now, too, with homemade dough, but I have always used Ragu as the sauce. I'm sure this would taste so much better.

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me all this, Chowder.
 

ChowderMan

Pizza Chef
Super Site Supporter
>>Do you cook or brown any meats you are adding before you put them in the sauce?

hmmm, well - not seafood . . .!

there's probably some other (non-seafood) exceptions, but generally I brown / sear the meat, get the sauce hot & tasted, then combine - allowing time for flavor blending as needed by the dish.

in other words, I'm not big on the "take a can of this and a can of that and three raw chicken legs, throw into the casserole & bake for . . ."

meatballs - I heavy brown those in a skillet, finish in the oven, mix in with hot sauce.

cutlet type dishes (veal parm, etc) - no way - the sauce is a 'topping' - it'll go in the oven to melt cheese, play nice with a crust, etc., but cooked drowning in sauce? nope.

even spaghetti & meat sauce - I do a heavy brown of the ground beef (seasoned) _then_ it goes into the tomato sauce. the browning makes a _huge_ difference in taste&texture.

chicken - probably don't use the oven to finish after browning - but definitely brown the pieces / chunks before they go into the sauce. that covers a whole host of "Italian" recipes - Italian in quotes, cause if you go to Italy, you can't find those kinds of American dishes . . .

ossa bucco - classic cook in sauce dish - but yeah - I brown the dang shanks!

probably missing something, but it's not coming to mind.
 

Constance

New member
Here is mine that I make every other week. Being Italian decent we eat a lot of it too. Now I make it pretty much as my grandmother did so bare with me on measurements as I really don't measure much of this stuff so I'm guessing.

2 - 28oz cans of San Marzano whole pealed tomatoes.
1 - 14 oz can of diced tomatoes (I use Hunt's because it is easy to find)
1 - small can Tomato paste (what ever brand you like)
1 - large yellow onion diced
1 - large bell pepper diced (pick any color you like)

1 small can tomato paste can filled about 3/4 of the way with Cabernet Sauvignon wine or some other wine you can drink. I find white wines a bit too dry and some reds too sweet.
Crushed red pepper, salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
Oregano, Italian seasoning mix.
Fresh basil and flat leaf parsley in equal amounts about a 1/4 cup.
4 to 6 cloves of diced garlic (this is really to your tastes).
Olive oil to sauté the onions and bell pepper.

I use an 8 quart stock pot preheated to medium heat then add olive oil (extra virgin is what I use). Sauté the onions and bell pepper until soft and translucent. I add the tomato paste at this point mixing it with onions and bell pepper then add the tomato paste can of wine. I now add the garlic and let it come back to heat. I now add the whole tomatoes 1 can at a time crushing them as I add them. I add them slowly to keep the heat up. I then add the crushed tomato and let come to a heat that makes popping bubbles on the surface. At this point I add the oregano and Italian seasoning mix and stir it every few minutes. I let this cook about 30 minutes to an hours stirring it every few minutes keeping the heat where the sauce just simmers. At this point I add the basil and parsley and mix it in. After about 30 more minutes of stirring every few minutes I use a stick blender to thin out the sauce a bit to get the consistency I like, thick but not chunky. I now turn down the heat low and test the seasoning adding more if necessary. I let this go about another 15 minutes or so. Now I bottle this up in 1 quart bell jars and refrigerate for use. It will keep about a month in the refrigerator and 3 months frozen. When I use it I add the amount I want to a pan and heat it up on low heat and if too thick I will add a little of the salted pasta water to it.

That is exactly the way I made it before I got lazy and started using jarred sauce.
 
Top