Rich Winter Tomato Sauce Recipes

BASIC TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Heat the oil in a pan and add the vegetables and bay leaf. Stir in the sugar with some salt. Gently cook for 10-15 mins until the veg is tender. Stir in the tomatoes and 150ml water. Simmer very gently for 30 mins until the sauce has reduced by two-thirds and is very thick. (If you have doubled or tripled the quantities, this may take up to 1 hr.)
• Stir occasionally, particularly towards the end of the cooking time, so that the sauce doesn't catch on the bottom. If you like your sauce a little thinner, add a splash of water. Serve half with pasta and chill or freeze other half in 1-2 batches for later use (see 'Goes well with' for ideas of how to use up your sauce).

HOMEMADE TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare a large bowl of ice water.
• Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, about 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon and place in ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peels and squeeze out seeds.
• Chop 8 tomatoes and puree them in a blender or food processor until smooth. Chop remaining 2 tomatoes and set aside.
• Heat butter and oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, bell pepper, carrot, and garlic; cook and stir until onion softens, about 5 minutes. Pour in pureed tomatoes, then stir in chopped tomatoes, wine, basil, and Italian seasoning. Place celery stalks and bay leaf in the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 hours.
• Stir in tomato paste; simmer for an additional 2 hours. Discard celery and bay leaf and serve.

ROASTED WHOLE TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
• Add the tomatoes, olive oil, oregano, garlic, onion, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper and the red pepper flakes to a large Dutch oven or oven-safe pot with a lid. Stir so that everything is coated in oil and spices. Roast in the Dutch oven, uncovered, until the tomatoes start to soften and split, about 1 hour.
• Stir and flip the tomatoes, then cook until the tomatoes, garlic and onion are all browned and very soft, about 1 hour more. At this point everything should be easily smashed with the back of a spoon. Transfer the pot to the stove and keep covered.
• While the tomatoes finish roasting, bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil over high heat. Add 2 tablespoons salt and the pasta. Cook 2 minutes less than package instructions. Reserve 1 cup pasta water and drain the pasta.
• Add 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the cooked tomatoes and carefully blend with an immersion blender, tipping the pot slightly if necessary to fully submerge the blender (or transfer to a regular blender) and blend until smooth. Bring the blended sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat, then add the drained pasta and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Adding more pasta water if the mixture needs to be saucier. Serve warm with a few basil leaves and a sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

RICH WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a small bowl soak dried tomatoes in boiling water 30 minutes and drain in a sieve over a bowl. Chop soaked tomatoes coarse.
• While dried tomatoes are soaking, in a saucepan cook onion and garlic in butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add canned tomatoes with juice, stirring to break up tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste and simmer sauce, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.
• Purée sauce through the fine disk of a food mill or force it through a coarse sieve set over a bowl. Sauce may be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.

WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Using fingers, split open tomatoes; remove and discard seeds. Chop tomatoes; reserve juice. Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chopped tomatoes and reserved juice and all remaining ingredients; stir to combine. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until sauce is reduced to 4 cups, stirring often, about 1 hour.
• Remove bay leaf and any stems from herbs. Pass sauce through food mill fitted with large holes. Alternately, transfer to processor. Using on/off turns, process to coarse puree.

THE ULTIMATE TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE BY TASTY

Steps:

• Add the tomatoes to a deep, large bowl. Using your hands, crush the tomatoes until no large pieces remain, just a coarse tomato puree.
• Peel the garlic cloves and finely chop.
• Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is softened but not browned, about 10 minutes.
• Add the anchovies and the oil they are packed in. Cook, stirring occasionally, until dissolved into the oil, about 2 minutes.
• Add the red pepper flakes and stir to combine.
• Add the tomato paste and cook until it turns a dark, brick-red color, about 4 minutes (this caramelizes the sugars in the tomato, which will give a really great flavor and take the edge off that raw tomato-y taste).
• Add the wine and cook for about 1 minute, just to burn off the alcohol.
• Add the tomatoes and stir everything together, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to get all those good bits. Add water and bring it to a boil.
• Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the sauce for 1½-2 hours at a very low simmer; there should just be a few bubbles here and there. If medium-low is too high (every stove is different), reduce the heat to low. Stir every 30 minutes.
• Ladle out about 2 cups of sauce: This is what is known as your "extra sauce." You'll serve it alongside the pasta or freeze it for later.
• To serve, cook the spaghetti in a large pot of salted boiling water.
• Drain the pasta and add it to the sauce. Serve it right out of the pot, or transfer to a serving bowl. Top with grated Parmesan cheese.
• Enjoy!

RICH AND ZESTY RED WINE TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a large pot, sweat the chopped onions and garlic in the olive oil over med-low heat.
• Add the peeled tomatoes, crushing them with your hands one by one into smaller chunks. Be careful- they squirt all over the place! Make sure to pour in all the liquid in the cans as well. Add all ingredients except salt, cheese, and wine.
• Stir all ingredients together. Cover, and increase heat to med-high. Simmer/cook 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom.
• Add about 1/3 of the bottle of merlot. Add the cheese. Stir, reduce heat slightly and let that cook uncovered for another 15-20 min, stirring occasionally.
• Taste and determine if you need salt, and add to taste. For salt with a little tang, add some more cheese, if you have it. Let simmer another 15 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally.
• During the last simmering stage, cook your pasta.
• Serve over pasta (1 ladleful is gracious plenty). Extra sauce can frozen for up to a month. To reheat, let simmer on low uncovered, stirring frequently so the sugar in the merlot doesn't burn.
• *Spicy alternative: For a spicier sauce, use shiraz in place of merlot and add 2 tsp of dried red pepper flakes.