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Meaty with a dash of veggies

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Sauces & Condiments

Homemade tomato sauce

Published: 05.15.2021 » Last updated: 03.22.2022

One of the five mother sauces in French cuisine, tomato sauce is so widely available that we cooks often choose convenience over texture and flavor.

Pouring tomato sauce over stuffed tortillas to make enchilada

The thing is, while commercial tomato sauce may cut down the cooking time, you also cut down on a lot of things.

  1. You pass off on the option to make a smooth or a chunky tomato sauce (yes, you have that choice!).
  2. You hand over to the tomato sauce manufacturer the freedom to determine how tomato sauce should be seasoned (there is only so much adjustment you can make with commercial tomato sauce).
  3. Most significantly, you give the manufacturer the right to put additives and artificial ingredients into your body.

It’s not difficult tomato sauce, really. If you can boil, chop and stir, you can make tomato sauce.

Boiling tomatoes in a pot of water to loosen the skin

You start by blanching the tomatoes to loosen the skin so they can easily peeled off.

Pureeing whole peeled tomatoes in a blender

The peeled tomatoes are then pureed. In traditional Italian cooking, a food mill is used to smash the tomato pulp into a watery paste. A blender or an immersion blender is not traditional but does the work well too.

Garlic and oregano on chopping board

Next comes the spices — onion, garlic and oregano which all need to be cut into small pieces.

Sauteeing onion, garlic and oregano in olive oil

Now, the cooking starts. Olive oil. Not extra virgin which is too bitter but just olive oil. The onion, garlic and oregano go into the hot olive oil where they are sauteed until softened and highly aromatic.

Adding tomato puree to sauteed onion, garlic and oregano

The pureed tomatoes are poured in, salt and pepper (and sugar for balance) are sprinkled in and everything is left to simmer until thick. And that’s it.

Full recipe below

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Connie Veneracion
For homemade tomato sauce, there are no special equipment needed (although a blender is a huge convenience) and you only need to know the most basic of cooking skills.
The not so good news is that because tomatoes are not created equal — some may appear more orange than red — your tomato sauce may not have the attractive bright red color that you have come to love after years (maybe, decades even) of using commercial tomato sauce. There is a solution and it is not artificial food color. By adding paprika (made from dried bell peppers), you not only make your tomato sauce redder but you also make the flavors richer.
Adding paprika to homemade tomato sauce for a deeper red color (and added flavor too!)
Print
Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 30 mins
Total Time 40 mins
Course Sauce
Cuisine French, Italian, Spanish
Servings 4 cups

Ingredients
  

  • 1 kilogram fresh plump tomatoes
  • 1 large onion - peeled and chopped
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil
  • 3 cloves garlic - peeled and chopped
  • 2 sprigs oregano - stripped, stalks discarded and leaves chopped
  • salt
  • pepper
  • sugar
  • paprika - optional

Instructions
 

  • Boil plenty of water in a pot. When the water is boiling briskly, add the tomatoes (see notes after the recipe).
  • Cook in boiling water until the skins burst, about one to two minutes depending on the ripeness of your tomatoes.
  • Cool the tomatoes a bit and peel off the skins.
  • Place the skinless tomatoes in the blender (or use an immersion blender) and process to your desired chunkiness (you may also do this by hand; I prefer the blender because I don’t lose any of the juices that way).
  • Heat the olive oil in a pan or pot.
  • Over medium low heat, saute the chopped onion until translucent (you want the onion to sweat rather than brown so keep the heat down).
  • Crush and peel the garlic.
  • Add the garlic and oregano to the onion. Cook, stirring, for about a minute.
  • Pour in the pureed tomatoes.
  • Season with salt and pepper. Stir.
  • Add a bit of sugar to cut down the acidity of the tomatoes.
  • If the tomato sauce doesn't look as red as you want it, add paprika now — half a teaspoonful at a time until you're happy with the color.
  • Lower the heat, cover and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
  • And you have your homemade tomato sauce.

Notes

To make peeling the tomatoes easier, you may want to make shallow criss-cross cuts on top of the tomatoes before dropping into the hot water.
Print
Keyword Tomato Sauce

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Connie Veneracion, Chiang Mai, 2020

Hi, I’m Connie!

Welcome to Umami Days, a blog that advocates innovative home cooking for pleasurable everyday dining. No trendy diets, no food fads and definitely no ludicrous recipe names like crustless quiche, noodleless pho or chocolate lasagna.

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