Greek-Style Tomato Sauce
Budget Recipes Vegetables Greek Sauces and Salsa
What makes tomato sauce different from one country to another? The seasoning. The Italian one is flavored with basil, the Spanish one has a special taste from caramelized onions, my grandmother flavors the Romanian one with celery leaves. This one, the Greek version, has cinnamon as its special aroma, which accentuates the flavor and sweetness of the tomatoes. It's not a strong flavor, just a supporting one, so you can try it with confidence. But I'm sure you'll make it once you see what interesting recipes I'm proposing with this tomato sauce.
See all recipes using this tomato sauce:
- Eggplant Rolls with Cheese in Tomato Sauce
- Meatballs with Potatoes in Tomato Sauce
- Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Feta
- Mussels in Tomato Sauce and Feta (mussels saganaki)
- Stuffed Vegetables with Meat and Rice
- Herb Stew with New Potatoes
- Rice with Mussels
- Oven-Baked Meatballs with New Potatoes and Peppers
- Chicken Giouvetsi
- Eggplant in Tomato Sauce and Feta (eggplant saganaki)
- Orzo with Shrimp (shrimp giouvetsi)
- Eggplant in Tomato Sauce
- Chickpeas in Tomato Sauce with Feta
Ingredients
2 kg ripe tomatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon sugar
1 heaping teaspoon oregano
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes (or to taste)
1 cinnamon stick (about 3 cm)
1 bay leaf
salt
Yield: approx. 600ml
How to prepare greek-style tomato sauce
- Score the tomatoes with an X and blanch them for 10 seconds in boiling water. Peel them. Cut into large pieces, put in a food processor and blend until chopped.
- In a wide pan, slowly heat the oil together with the sliced garlic. When the garlic is slightly golden and smells strong, add the chopped tomatoes. Add the rest of the ingredients (oregano, bay leaf, chili, cinnamon, sugar to counter the acidity, and salt to taste). Bring to a boil.
- Simmer the tomato sauce for 30-35 minutes, until it has reduced significantly. Start on high heat, then after 20 minutes you can reduce it a bit so you don't have to stir too often. Taste for salt at the end. Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaf.
- At the end, use an immersion blender to blend the sauce well. If you want the sauce seed-free, you can pass it through a strainer (I did).
- Pour into a wide-neck bottle or jar and store in the refrigerator.
Adding the tomatoes
Adding the seasonings
And simmer for 30 minutes
