Simple but amazing pasta sauce recipe

I made something like this the other day but used fresh tomatoes. Just blanch them in boiling water for a few seconds and the skin peels right off. Then make the sauce pretty much the same as usual. Not quite as much flavor as the San Marzano's but still tasty!

 

I can't help it, but it's just too easy to use Newman's Best Marinara. That is the best stuff in a jar next to crunchy peanutbutter....and moonshine.

 

This used to be my date night - at her place recpie:

De cecci pasta - I used the gnocchi pasta

1 box of Knorr Swiss tomato basil soup

1 Garlic & herb Boursin cheese

parmigiano reggiano

white wine to make the soup...

cook the pasta to al dente, make the soup with white wine, once the soup is done, add the whole cheese into the soup, this makes it creamy - toss with the pasta, shave parmesan cheese - serve. Drink a barolo or other nebbiolo grape wine. or if you can find it dry lambrusco.

 

Me too
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Hommina hommina hommina - that's a beautiful tureen.

 

As you can see I have not made it in a while... I've used progresso chunky tomato soup... works good as well. might want to use some cream in there as well.

for wine I use sauvignon blanc, I would stay away from any chardonnay - to woody.

 

I love meat sauce, I've been making this with thin pasta for years. Great recipe.

 

Okay - I just had to resurrect this thread because I've been using it once or twice a month religiously. This sauce is fantastic. I've learned a few things that I thought I would share:

1. Adding anything is a waste and will most likely take away from the beautiful flavors in this sauce.
2. The only exception to #1 is that I just use the whole stick of unsalted butter and enjoy the extra butter flavor in the sauce - but this is personal preference.
3. I enjoy it much more reheated the next day because it lets the sauce set up just a bit.

4. I've reused this sauce to make some additional meals that are mind blowing! Pizza bread - I buy some of that frozen garlic bread and heat it in the oven following the directions. At about 5 minutes, I take out the bread and generously spread the sauce from this thread all over the open faced garlic bread and then sprinkle shredded mozerella cheese on top and pop it back in the oven for another 5-8 minutes - depending on your preference in terms of "doneness.". To die for!

I've also used this sauce to make homemade pizzas!

 

This is one of the best and most useful threads I have ever encountered on f chat!
Tom....use soup for pasta sauce? I'll admit I've never tried it but my grandma Tranquilli would likely turn over in her grave.

 

I made this sauce for my girlfriend and a buddy of mine and the whole time they were telling me there is no way this will be good, it has no seasoning. So, I showed them the thread while the sauce was simmering and they still did not be leave it but when all was said and done the both of them were looking for more bread to soke up the rest of the sauce. I used bowtie noodles and I also grilled some sausage and sliced it up and tossed it in the sauce it was really great.

Adam

 

I'm real funny about store bought pasta sauces. I've tried them all and can't seem to find one I really like. So, I'm going to try this one soon and report back on what I think.

 

In order to protect the domestic industry, Agriculture slapped a huge tariff on San Marzano tomatoes a while ago. In response, SM associations added a ton of tomato puree to cans destined for the US, the product crossing whatever bureaucratic line needed to be crossed in order to avoid the tariff.

SMs are a wonderful product, probably the best there is. But that puree robs them of freshness and at least some acidity.

Try Muir Glen Organic Italian Plum tomatoes for a fresher tasting sauce.

Here's what I do when I want an intense tomato sauce, in case anyone's interested:

-- Set up two small to medium mixing bowls. Put a strainer over one of them that's fine enough to catch tomato seeds.

-- Rip open the plum tomatoes over the strainer and pull out the seeds and top stem off each one. Place the tomato flesh in the other bowl.

-- Empty the contents of the can into the sieve, and push as much of the liquid through as you can with a soup spoon (scrap the good stuff off the bottom of the sieve into the bowl.) Let the liquid settle.

-- Crush the tomatoes by hand.

-- Heat up a 1/3 of a cup of a neutral oil that can handle heat in a VERY HEAVY pan that's between 8-10" in diameter, and has a heavy cover. (Olive oil will take away the tomato intensity we're after. Better to drizzle some quality evoo on right before serving.)

-- Wilt about a 1/3 of a cup of finally diced onion with about a 1/2tsp kosher salt (I hate the iodine taste.)

-- When the onions are soft, turn the heat up to max, gather the onions in the center, crush two cloves of garlic over the onions, add a pinch of red pepper flakes on the pile and stir three or four times.

-- Immediately add the crushed tomatoes in with whatever liquid they've given off in their bowl, stir, then lower heat to medium-high. Add another 1/2tsp of kosher salt. Cook for about three minutes, stirring often (we're looking to caramelize the tomatoes as much as we can without burning them, stirring any fond back into the tomatoes.)

-- The tomato liquid we gathered while seeding the tomatoes should have precipitated by now. Slowly tilt the bowl so that at least half the clear liquid leaves the bowl (we want as little moisture going into the pan as we can, but we do want some of the acidity from the clear liquid.)

-- Pour all the liquid into the pan, stir, and bring to a full boil ASAP.

-- Drop the hear back to MH, cover with a heavy lid - use a weight if you have to - and cook for 7-9 minutes, stirring and scrapping the fond out of the corners three or four times. Add another 1/2tsp of kosher salt half way through.

-- Toss with a pound of spaghetti - nothing else seems to work - top with some evoo, and served with a ton of Romano and some hearty bread (forget the garlic bread.)

This is an intense sauce because the tomatoes get super-caramelized, there are few additional flavors, the salt and acid accent everything and the oil is saturated with tomato flavor (fat is the best flavor conduit.)

I hope this proves to be worth the time anyone might put into it.

 

Great thread, I will try the sauce, but we're having the sauce I made the day before yesterday tonight.

I have one question though: Why do you guys cook out of cans? Don't you find good quality fresh produce where you are? Can't beat the taste of fresh ingredients.

 

What you guys are doing is pretty much what most Italians do.

Just don't use butter but olive oil, possibly extra virgin!

My mom cuts the onions in small pieces, she says it gives more taste.
I don't love onions so when I'm there she only cuts it in half and takes it out before serving.

She also adds basil and very little sugar.


You can make some variants adding olives or bacon, both cut in small pieces.



Another one I really love during summer is pasta with fresh tomatoes and basil.
Tomatoes and basil need to be fresh and tasty of course. In this one I also like to add olives and mozzarella. Very fresh, very tasty, good even cold!

 

I don't think it's either-or. I see canned as a different ingredient.

And it's getting harder and harder to find truly great fresh tomatoes here except for a few weeks a year, as food pros pay through the nose for the pampered ones. Plus, when I find them, I'd rather eat them with as little augmentation as possible. (The last thing I'd do with a great fresh tomato is turn it into a sauce.)

EDIT: I wouldn't use fresh in the recipe I posted above. It's too brutal.

 

I'm hungry....

 

True, and I gladly accept your assessment of them being different ingredients.

I moved from Holland to South Africa in the mid 90-ies; at the time, all veg in Holland was tasteless and watery, grown to emulate the looks of, say, a tomato, but lacking any taste.
In SA fresh produce is plentyful, sun-riped and tasty, and since then you'd hardly ever find a can in my kitchen. Nowadays, here we also find tomato's pre-packed, and portioned parsley in plastic. Fortunately, enough shops keep the stuff as it was harvested.

 

I wonder if your experiences in Holland coincided with the hydroponics craze that hit western Europe around that time? As bad as that may have been, hydroponically grown produce in the US was even worse (it's gotten better everywhere, even putting out product that's more palatable than some in soils (baby arugula for one.))

That's wonderful!

 

Well, I'm trying to keep it quick and easy for the novice ... if you really want a great tomato based pasta sauce here goes from my days with Freddy Giradet in Switzerland:

3# roma tomatoes - peeled and de seeded. cut in half
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
3 bunches of Thyme
1 head of garlic, peeled and slowcooked in olive oil, untill its golden brown
2 bunch of basil
1 cup barolo, or good nebbiolo grape wine
1 stick whole butter - cut in 1/2 inch cubes - very cold
fresh parmigiano reggianno fresh grated at last min.


So you will roast the tomatoes in the oven for aobut 1.5 - 2 hours on low 200F -heat drizzle with a bit of olive oil and the fresh thyme., what you want is slightly roasted sundried tomatoes look. drain off any excess water ( i save for tomato vinagrette)

once they are done, take out and place in food processor with the Garlic, sea salt, and basil and pulse until you have a thickish past. - it will be a bit pink...

put in sauce pan on the stove warm up and add red wine... reduce down till 1/2 volume, and then add in the butter... you want to almost make a butter sauce with this, so the goal is to keep it in emulsion. You could also add some cream if you like ...

you can now toss with pasta - make sure its not too hot, or before you add the butter add the pasta, and a couple tbsp of pasta water, then add butter to make the emulsion...

toss with fresh parmesan & blk pepper - bene!

the only thing I would add to this is perhaps some sauteed proscuitto or bits of guanchalle -sp? ... but its great on its own. we used viande seche air dried beef cut in fine julienne on top...


if you omit the garlic, and just take the tomatoes out of the oven and cool till they are cold, then rough chopp, it makes a great salad foundation for fresh Mozzarella di buffalo.... I make a circle in middle of the plate with the tomatoes, then slice the mozzarella into 2-3 chunks place on top of the tomatoes and then a bit of arugula, and basil, top with extra virgin 1st press olive oil, porchini sea salt and ground coarse black pepper.... works great also with grilled artichokes and lemon zest.

 

I make the sauce discussed here quite often, and once I tried it with fresh tomatoes (however, the watery supermarket kind) - tastes completely different. I like the version with canned tomatoes better, especially as there's an Italian supermarket close by which offers a wide selection to choose from.

 

I think I'm going to work my way through the recipes in this thread, just to try them all.


Since right now we're coming up to the peak of tomato season, and there are plentiful farmer's markets with great produce in my area. I will attempt to make some of these with the proper varieties of fresh tomatoes.

Perhaps next year I'll add San Marzanos to my tomato garden - doing a quick search it's not very hard to source the seeds for the variety around here.

Yay tomatoes

 

+1

We get most of our veg from SA IIRC. Plenty good! And when I'm in SA...damn! It's a lot cheaper there as well.

 

I tried the recipe in the OP, both as it's written and subbing 1/4C of cooking evoo for the butter and three large, slice garlic cloves for the onion. I liked the second one more, though the original is good as well. (Hazan loves butter.)

 

Homemade is not only 10 times better but less expensive and without all the preservatives. We actually have some sauce (from a jar-Prego w/sausage I think) in the fridge and I only eat the homemade meatballs out of it. The pre-made stuff gives my indigestion.

Regarding the San Marzano tomatoes in a can they are straight up natural and canned fresh, even alot of the 5 star eateries use them.