NanisTomatoSauce

Notes

Tomato sauce is like any great work; you really need to feel your way thru it and it will lead you where you need to go. Go with what feels right.

Bones

It is not strictly necessary but like most things the sauce is greatly improved with the addition of some (ideally pork) soup bones. Alternatively you can add some stock made from good bones to the sauce but any water you add will have to be cooked off.

If your bones have a little meat on them you get a wonderful treat after the sauce is made. Brown the meat a bit and take it out before continuing with the recipe.

Garlic

There are two main schools of thought that both come from the fact that the sauce should be homogeneous. The garlic should either be minced to dust, or left whole and later removed from the sauce.

Tomatoes

Garden fresh are best though canned trump the trash grocery stores try to pass off as tomatoes. The vine ripe grocery store variety would work but are too expensive. Whole canned roma are the 1st choice. Crushed are good, and pureed are suspect. Honestly any will do but you only get out what you put in.

The juice in the canned tomatoes is very sour. If you use the juice (you must with crushed or puree) add a tablespoon or two of sugar to mellow the acidic bite.

If you can get whole roma tomatoes with basil all the better but still add more basil to the sauce.

Herbs

Obviously fresh herbs are the best but out of season they are brutally expensive so grow extra and dry it for the winter months. The advantage of fresh herbs is they are easy to remove after the sauce is cooked.

Parsley

Parsley stems are better than whole leaf for long cook times. The leaves tend to get bitter but the stems stay pure.

Sweet Basil

The sweet basil (the kind you are probably used to) adds sweetness to the sauce as well as the basil flavor. This is most pronounced in the fresh variety and tempers the acid of the tomatoes.

Oregano/Thyme

My family uses a wild italian oregano from southern italy. It is more similar to thyme and commercial oreganos I've had so I use thyme if I don't have the good stuff.

Ingredients

This is a pretty rough estimate. Ultimately use what works best for you.

• 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic
• 3 cans tomatos, probably like qt size
• 1 bunch basil, thyme, parsley
• 1 tsp fennel seed?
• 1/2 small can tomato paste
• 2-3 chili de arbol
• copious olive oil

Recipe

1. Cover the bottom of the pan in a shallow puddle of olive oil maybe an 1/8" deep. You can later remove excess oil if you'd like but put it in there to start.
2. Get the oil hot (a little smoking is ok contrary to popular belief)
3. Brown any meat if desired, then remove
4. Add finely chopped onion, garlic, salt, pepper and reduce heat. Sweat the onions until translucent and tender, at least 5 min up to 30 min if you want to caramelize them a bit
5. Add tomato paste and allow oil to rust (just fry the tomato paste for a while and you'll see what I mean)
   • If you don't have tomato paste just use a little tomato puree and cook off the water, then the oil will rust
6. Add pureed tomatoes, sweet basil, thyme/oregano, parsley, fennel seed and stir a little
   • I like to add a couple chilies. Not enough to make it hot, just to flavor and add a depth of flaver
7. Add back meat or soup bones
8. Bring heat back up then reduce to the gentlest of simmers and cover
   • judge liquid level and cook off some water as needed
9. Simmer for at least an hour, oil will come to the top along steam channels, you will learn the feel of it as it cooks thru various stages
   • If adding meatballs put them in the pot about 45 min before the sauce is finished
   • If using bones remove them when the meat starts to pull away from the bone, it will be very tender
10. Allow to cool and remove herbs, bones, garlic, and whatever other solids you tossed in.

-- ChristopherPepe - 09 Aug 2009