Classic Tomato Sauce

Name: Classic Tomato Sauce
Yield: Makes 7 cups
Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 onion, finely diced; 1 bay leaf; 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried; 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 2 teaspoons salt or to taste; 2 tablespoons tomato paste; Two 26-ounce boxes Pomi chopped tomatoes or two 28-ounce cans whole plum tomatoes, chopped with their liquid

January 24, 2012

Since everyone has his or her version of this sauce, we spent a lot of time getting this one right. No surprise, the best results came from using the best ingredients. When it comes to tomato sauce, using poor-quality canned tomatoes can leave an acidic or tinny taste in your mouth. So while it is a bit more expensive, we like to use Pomi brand chopped tomatoes (you know, the ones that come in the box). The sauce starts with a careful “sweating” of onions (cooking them slowly, until translucent but not brown, to extract as much flavor as possible), and the flavor continues to build from a nice, long, low-heat simmering after the tomatoes are added.

Recipe information

Yield
Makes 7 cups

Ingredients

1/4 cup olive oil

1 onion, finely diced

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

2 teaspoons salt or to taste

2 tablespoons tomato paste

Two 26-ounce boxes Pomi chopped tomatoes or two 28-ounce cans whole plum tomatoes, chopped with their liquid

Preparation

Step 1
Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onions, bay leaf, oregano, garlic, and salt and cook, stirring often, until the onions are soft and translucent, about 10 minutes.
Step 2
Add the tomato paste and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and stir constantly until the sauce begins to boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring every 5 minutes or so to prevent the sauce on the bottom of the pot from burning. Taste and season with additional salt, if desired. Remove the bay leaf before serving.

Reprinted with permission from The Meatball Shop Cookbook by Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow with Lauren Deen. Copyright © 2011 by Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow; photographs copyright © 2011 by John Kernick. Published by Ballantine Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved. Daniel Holzman is executive chef at The Meatball Shop. He is an alum of Le Bernadin, San Francisco's Fifth Floor, and Aqua, among other highly acclaimed restaurants. He attended the Culinary Institute of America, where he received a full scholarship from the James Beard Foundation. Michael Chernow runs the front-of-house operations and the beverage program at The Meatball Shop. He has worked extensively in restaurants in New York and Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, where he earned degrees in culinary arts and restaurant management. He and Holzman met as teenagers when they worked together as delivery boys at the New York vegan restaurant Candle Café. Needless to say, the vegan thing didn't really stick. Lauren Deen is the author of the New York Times bestselling Cook Yourself Thin series and Kitchen Playdates. She is an Emmy award—and James Beard award— winning television producer and director. She is currently executive producer of food(ography) on the Cooking Channel.

TagsSauce Italian American Italian European Canned Tomato Tomato Vegetable Nut Free Gluten Free Dairy Free Vegetarian Vegan Easy Meal Prep Simmer Cookbooks

Recipe information

Ingredients

Preparation

Step 1

Step 2

Recipe notes