How To Make Tomato Sauce
If there was one foundation recipe to know I would argue that knowing how to make tomato sauce is it. Once you know how to make tomato sauce, I mean a real all purpose tomato sauce, there is much that can be done. It would be a sauce that would be fantastic on noodles and one that could confidently be slathered on pizza, create a tasty meatball sub and even make the best lasagna.
How To Make Tomato Sauce – The Can Of Tomatoes
There are times when cooking down fresh tomatoes is best for a sauce. A good trotolle pasta with a simple sauce is nice, but it can be time consuming because it is made with fresh tomatoes. As with most folks, I am all for canned tomatoes. I will even go so far as to say, your standard can of whole tomatoes will do the trick. We hear the talking head blather about tomatoes from San Marzano and blah blah blah, but I will bet most could not pick out which tomato was which in a taste test.
How To Make Tomato Sauce – The Goodies
Although the tomatoes are important, so are the goodies that are used to flavor it. First, garlic and onion are important. Those alliums are very flavourful and really bring a lot to a sauce. Then comes the balsamic vinegar. Yes, balsamic. Tomato sauce needs a little sweetness. You can get this sweetness with sugar, but why not get it with other ingredients that bring rich flavour. Balsamic gets very sweet when it reduces and brings a variety of nice fruity flavours with it – if you haven’t used it before, it is worth trying. Next is the fennel seed. We just are not eating enough fennel seed. Fennel seed in a tomato sauce is a match made in culinary heaven. Of course, basil and oregano are needed, too. A little herbaciousness is nice in tomato sauce.
How To Make Tomato Sauce – The Cheese
The cheese? You might not think that knowing how to make tomato sauce would require cheese, but it should. We take a similar page from the discussion about balsamic vinegar. A tomato sauce needs some saltiness and umami and what better place to get salt and umami than parmesan cheese. Parmesan also brings in other nutty flavors that complement the sauce well. Personally, I don’t think the parmesan is the place to skimp! I think the cheese really helps bring the sauce together nicely.
How To Make Tomato Sauce – And What To Do With It
Once you know how to make tomato sauce that is all purpose, the dishes you can make are endless. As the pictures show, you can use this sauce for lasagna, meatballs, frittatine (stuffed omelet), etc. Yes, it is especially good as a pizza sauce.
The ‘How To Make Tomato Sauce’ video is below. It is very easy to make. The full recipe follows
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 sweet onion
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 tsp fennel seed
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 4 cans tomatoes
- 3 large bunches of fresh basil
- 2 tsp oregano
- 1 cup parmesan cheese
- Chili flake
- Salt and pepper
- Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves.
- Peel and dice the onion into a small dice.
- Remove the leaves of basil from the stems.
- Heat the olive oil in a medium pan over medium heat.
- When the oil is hot, add the garlic. Cook until fragrant.
- Add the onion. Cook until softened, stirring frequently.
- Add the fennel seeds. Cook 1 minute.
- Add the balsamic vinegar and reduce by 3 quarters.
- Add the tomatoes and bring to a simmer.
- Add the basil. Simmer 20 minutes reducing by 1/4.
- Stir in the parmesan cheese and oregano. Add chili flake to taste.
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Simmer 10 minutes more. Remove from heat.
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Do you know how to make tomato sauce? What do you add to it? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook.
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