Fresh Tomato Sauce
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 to 3garlic cloves, minced or thinly sliced (to taste)
- 3pounds ripe tomatoes, quartered if you have a food mill, peeled, seeded, and diced if you don’t
- ⅛teaspoon sugar
- 2sprigs of fresh basil, or 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- Salt
- 1tablespoon slivered fresh basil
- Freshly ground pepper
Nutritional analysis per serving (5 servings)
78 calories; 3 grams fat; 0 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 12 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 7 grams sugars; 3 grams protein; 648 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
In a wide, nonstick frying pan, or in a 3-quart saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, sugar, basil or thyme sprig, and salt (begin with ½ teaspoon and add more later), and bring to a simmer. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer, stirring often, until thick. Pulpy tomatoes like romas will usually take 20 to 30 minutes. However, if the tomatoes are very juicy, it will take longer for them to cook down. The longer you cook the sauce, the sweeter it will be. You can speed up the process by turning up the heat, but stir often so the sauce doesn’t scorch. Towards the end of cooking, stir in the slivered fresh basil and some freshly ground pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Step 2
If using quartered tomatoes, put through the medium blade of a food mill. If you used peeled seeded tomatoes but want a sauce with a smooth, even texture, remove the basil sprigs and discard. Pulse the sauce in a food processor fitted with the steel blade.
Private Notes
Comments
Carrot. When you add the tomatoes, add a piece 3-4" long and let it simmer. The sugars in the carrot will cut the acid in the tomatoes. Remove (and eat!) before serving.
My tomatoes are rolling in from the garden. This sauce is so easy and flavorful. I learned to cook believing you had to peel and seed tomatoes to make sauce. You don't! They taste just fine.
So easy! Agree totally that it has a wonderfully fresh and summery flavor. I've made this sauce twice now and with different types of fresh tomatoes each time. Cooking the tomatoes longer did indeed make the sauce sweeter. Pulsing the cooked sauce in a blender or food processor smoothed its texture and incorporated seeds and skin. The picture accompanying the recipe is more like what mine looked like at the beginning of the cooking process, not the end.
Delicious even if you just chop the tomatoes without peeling and seeding them. That approach makes this the easiest pasta sauce ever and a pinch of red pepper flakes gives it a nice kick. Fabulous!
I used mill on raw tomatoes to get skin and seeds out. Put the mill right in the wide skillet so i didn't have another vessel to wash. Worked just fine. Liked the idea of adding a carrot, so I will do that next time. Cooked sauce on slow simmer for about 50 mins to get a thicker sauce. It is really quite good and east to make.
Cook down for probably 90 mins!
Probably not! The longer you cook a sauce like this, the less fresh the flavor will be. The whole point of using fresh ripe tomatoes is to end up with a fresh testing sauce. If you want thick "spaghetti sauce", buy a jar of Ragu.
90 minutes will probably ruin the fresh tomato taste that is the goal here. Fresh, ripe tomatoes have a distinct, summer-y flavor that will not survive being cooked down for 90 minutes. That will result in a thick "spaghetti sauce" similar to what is purchased in jars at the super market.
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