Try this Homemade Tomato Sauce recipe.
- Carbohydrate 18.9225732539189 g
- Cholesterol 10.1677083376937 mg
- Fat 5.55323388799377 g
- Fiber 4.06171758220159 g
- Protein 2.7410724869974 g
- Saturated Fat 2.68452468563708 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (292g)
- Sodium 71.7409260048198 mg
- Sugar 14.8608556717173 g
- Trans Fat 0.464532654036851 g
- Calories 133 calories
Step-by-step
- Bring a pot of water to a boil.
- Have ready a large bowl of iced water.
- Plunge whole tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel, 1 minute.
- Remove with slotted spoon and place in ice bath.
- Let rest until cool enough to handle, then remove peel and squeeze out seeds.
- Chop 8 tomatoes and puree in blender or food processor.
- Chop remaining two tomatoes and set aside.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook onion, bell pepper, carrot and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, 5 minutes.
- Pour in pureed tomatoes.
- Stir in chopped tomato, basil, Italian seasoning and wine.
- Place bay leaf and whole celery stalks in pot.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 2 hours.
- Stir in tomato paste and simmer an additional 2 hours.
- Discard bay leaf and celery and serve.
Quick jarred marinara relies on sugar for balance, but a proper long-simmered pomodoro develops natural sweetness from root vegetables and reduction. Many home cooks ruin this balance by rushing the process. Blanched tomatoes must chill thoroughly in ice water before peeling, or the flesh will tear and turn watery inside the blender. Squeezing out the seed chambers prevents bitter compounds from dominating the final purée.
- Pair this robust sauce with extruded bronze-die pasta like rigatoni or bucatini, because their rough starch-coated surfaces grip heavy vegetable purees better than smooth Teflon-extruded noodles.
- Add thick slices of rustic sourdough garlic bread to soak up excess acidity and residual olive oil on the plate.
- Roast Italian pork sausages separately and fold them into the pot during the final thirty minutes of simmering to enrich the overall fat content.
- Substitute dry white wine for the burgundy at a strict one-to-one ratio if lighter fruit notes are preferred, though the red wine provides crucial depth.
- Store leftovers in airtight glass containers for up to four days in the refrigerator, or freeze them for three months without losing structural integrity.
Proper pairing transforms a basic vegetable reduction into a complete meal. Careful attention to the four-hour simmer time ensures the raw vegetable bite vanishes completely.
