This can be used only as a fresh sauce for pasta, but also as an element in many different dishes. When tomatoes are abundant, this is a good sauce to make in quantity and freeze or can. If you are going to pass the sauce through a food mill, there’s no need to peel and seed the tomatoes beforehand. The food mill will strain out all the skins and seeds.
Recipe information
Yield
makes about 2 cups
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Peel, seed, and dice (see left): 2 pounds ripe tomatoes.
Step 2
Save the juice, strain out the seeds, and add the juice to the diced tomatoes. Peel: 5 large garlic cloves.
Step 3
Smash them and chop coarse.
Step 4
Put a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat and when hot, pour in: 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil.
Step 5
Add the garlic and when it starts to sizzle, immediately add the tomatoes and their juice with a large pinch of: Salt.
Step 6
Cook at a simmer for 15 minutes. For a smooth sauce, pass through a food mill.
Variations
Step 7
Add a handful of chopped parsley, marjoram, or oregano or a chiffonade of basil leaves to the sauce a couple of minutes before it is done.
Step 8
Sauté 1 small diced onion in the oil before adding the garlic.
Step 9
When tomatoes are out of season, use canned tomatoes: Drain, saving the juice, one 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes. Chop the tomatoes coarse and cook them with their juice.
Step 10
Add a whole dried chile or a pinch of dried chile flakes for spice.
