Tomato Sauce
Italian Vegetables Sauces and Salsa
Tomato sauce for pasta and pizza. Now is the best time to prepare it because you need very ripe tomatoes, the ones too soft for salads, the ones you can negotiate for a lower price at the market.
If you make just one portion of tomato sauce, store it in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. If you make a larger quantity, you can freeze it for at least 6 months.
Ingredients
2.5 kg very ripe tomatoes
2 onions
6 garlic cloves
1 level teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
10 basil leaves
8 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 teaspoons sugar (optional)
Yield: 600 ml tomato sauce
How to prepare tomato sauce
- Wash the tomatoes well and place them in the preheated oven at maximum temperature for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large pot (I used a wok) and sauté the finely chopped onion over low heat until lightly golden.
- Put the tomatoes in a food processor and blend for a few seconds, just to chop them up a bit.
- Add the crushed garlic to the onion and sauté for 1 more minute.
- Pour the chopped tomatoes over the onion and season with salt, pepper, and oregano. Bring to a boil and let simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes.
- Put the tomatoes back in the blender and blend well this time.
- Pass through a fine sieve. The sieve will catch all the seeds, stems, and tomato skins. Discard these.
- Put the smooth pulp back on the stove and simmer for about 1 hour over low heat this time. Stir occasionally. Taste the sauce now and add more salt if needed, and sugar if it tastes too acidic.
- In the last 10 minutes of cooking, add the finely chopped basil.
Sautéing the onion
Add the roasted tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes
Pass the blended sauce through a sieve
Only skins and seeds remain in the sieve
Simmer the smooth pulp to reduce slightly
Add basil at the end
