On Homemade Tomato Sauce

March 29, 2012 by

Hello! A few crickets this week, huh? Sorry guys, it’s been a busy past few days. Most weeks I reach Thursday and I don’t know where the week has gone. This week though, not so much. So much happened between Monday and today, I am so so ready for this week to be over. Almost!

So in the mean time, since my head can’t take anything too complicated, let’s talk about tomato sauce. Basic tomato sauce. I realized last weekend, when prepping this sauce for a dish, I couldn’t remember the last time I purchased store bought tomato sauce. I’ve gotten into the habit of making it myself because it gives me much more control over the flavor.  Plus, even though I’m usually using crushed tomatoes, it feels fresher and less processed. All good things in my book!

Perhaps whipping up a simple sauce from scratch seems a little daunting to you, so this post is both to tell you that it’s not- and show you how to do it. And if you want to take it a step further, I highly recommend making the sauce and incorporating it into this pasta dish. It is so so good!

Basic Homemade Tomato Sauce

This recipe makes a big batch, likely a bit more than you need for a pound of pasta, but you can always freeze the leftovers.

  • 2 28 oz containers crushed tomatoes (Note: you can use diced, you’ll just want to break them up a bit in a food processor first)
  • 1 medium yellow onion, minced
  • 6 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • heaping 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (add more if you like)
  • olive oil
Generously coat the bottom of a good size heavy sauce pan with olive oil. Add in the onions, set the flame to medium high, and let them cook for a solid 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they’re really soft. Add in the minced garlic, stir to combine, and let cook for an additional minute or two until fragrant. Add in the tomatoes, wine, salt, sugar, and red pepper flake, and stir well to combine. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes, but 45- 1 hour if you can. Serve immediately with pasta, or let cool and store in the fridge. This sauce is even better the next day, so you can definitely make it ahead. It can also be stored up to five days in the fridge.

 

5 Comments

Comments

  1. Alison says:
    March 30, 2012 at 12:27 am

    Sounds like a simple yet homey sauce!

    Reply
  2. frugalfeeding says:
    March 30, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    Life comes first! The longer cooking time for this the better – the sauce looks great, good to see you gave it a while :D . Delicious, as usual.

    Reply
  3. summerinthemorning says:
    March 31, 2012 at 6:13 pm

    This looks delicious! Can’t wait till the weather gets warmer so I can add farmers market fresh tomatoes to pasta sauce.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Taste | Homemade Tomato Sauce « five department says:
    April 1, 2012 at 9:33 pm

    [...] stores, for financial, environmental and health reasons! So, I was so happy when Clara from Channeling Contessa put up this recipe for tomato [...]

    Reply

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