Tuesday Recipe: Basic Tomato Sauce

Photo on Flickr by... hey, *me!* Used under a Creative Commons license.

So last week I mentioned a tomato sauce I often make and people asked for the recipe. Here you go.

Seriously, while I never make sauce exactly the same way I like to take a little tip from Indian cooking and cook the spices right into the olive oil before I toss in chopped onions and garlic into a big skillet. If I'm cooking with meat I'll toss in either ground beef or Italian sausage and let it brown a bit. When I'm not using meat and I'm planning to cook everything down, I'll use chopped up eggplant which substitutes nicely.

Once the onions and garlic are in I'll usually them that go till they just starts to get translucent before throwing in all the other chopped veggies. Veggies vary but I always a red or green bell pepper, almost always some carrot, celery if my kids and partner will let me get away with it, and then either the regular white or brown mushrooms. Every now and then I remember to soak dry porchini mushrooms but I almost never plan to put it in pasta sauce.

Lately once the veggies are all piled in and cooked just a bit I've started doing this trick I heard from some Italians where you "sweat" the vegetables, covered, on low for up to half an hour. That works as a nice alternative to deglazing the pan with wine... though I usually do that anyway.

I'm not a big wine snob... or drinker (about once a year I give away all the bottles well-intentioned people bring over.) I keep a couple bottles of high-quality vermouth -- one sweet and one dry usually -- plus some really expensive port and (a staple for Asian cooking) Chinese rice wine. For pasta sauce, unless I'm using something really beefy as the (optional) meat I'll deglaze with the dry vermouth with has a nice, fruity sweetness that to my ignorant palate nicely complements tomatoes.

Then into the pan I toss however many cans of mixed (almost always that great organic brand) tomato stuff -- diced, whole, crushed -- to mostly fill the skillet. Then I'll usually top off with herbs, black pepper, and salt, a little tomato paste, sometimes a little anchovy paste, and a pinch of sugar.

Then depending on what's what I'll either cook it just above a simmer for 15-20 minutes, or else I'll move it into a big pot and simmer it on low till it gets this really thick, glossy, almost syrupy quality that's really cool.

After that I usually boil pasta, grate parmesean, throw together a salad (I use olive, flaxseed, or sometimes a nut oil plus unseasoned rice vinegar as the dressing base with salt and pepper always, but then a little brown mustard or mayo or maybe a little crumbly bleu cheese to help emulsify it and fresh or dried herbs.) Whack up slices of crusty bread and yell for someone to set the table. Cleanup the big stuff while they're doing that, then serve up, say whatever feels appropriate to you, and dig in.

Update: SugarMag observed that I'd neglected, um, times and measurements. Which, as she said, is fine if you've already made it hundreds of time (in the last five years I'd guess 250 for me?) but not so hot if you've never done it before. So while I still think it's hard to go too wrong as long as there are tomatos in it and nothing burns I'll add some starter details.

For an 11 inch wide, 2.5 inch deep skillet:
- One medium onion, chopped
- One green pepper, chopped
- A medium carrot and a medium stalk of celery, chopped
- Half pound of ground beef or italian sausage (bulk is cheaper but sliced up links are fine too.)
- If not ground beef then a medium-small eggplant peeled or unpeels and cut into cubes.
- As much garlic as you and yours enjoy
- One to two tablespoons of your choice or combo of dried oregano, basil, marjoram, or "italian seasoning" herb blend.
- A quarter teaspoon of black pepper or to taste
- A teaspoon of salt or to taste
- Maybe a teaspoon of sugar
- Maybe a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar or a teaspoon of (stronger, more acidic) wine vinegar
- As little as a tablespoon of olive oil and as much as a quarter cup (it's healthy, flavorful, and filling, so if you're worried it's beter to skimp on the meat instead.)
- Up to a quarter cup of wine, water, or some kind of broth for deglazing.
- The equivalent of three 14.5 oz (411g) cans of tomato "stuff," (stewed, diced, crushed, sauce, whole, etc.)
- A tablespoon or more (to desired consistency) tomato paste
- A teaspoon or less of anchovy paste
- A quarter teaspoon red chile flakes or to taste.

1) Sear ground meat on high heat till it gets a little brown around the edges and a little browning starts sticking to the pan too (disregard the sticking part if you use teflon.) It's ok if the inside of the crumbles isn't quite done because it'll finish cooking in the sauce. Transfer meat to a bowl. Pour off any accumulated fat. *Don't* clean up the browned stuff on the bottom of the pan.

2) Add olive oil to pan over medium high or high heat, let warm till fragrant, then sprinkle seasonings over the oil without stirring, wait another few moments and throw in garlic and onion. Turn down the heat if necessary to prevent scorching, and stir occasionally, one to three minutes, till the onions are translucent.

3) Turn the heat back up and start tossing or stirring in all the other veggies. Once the heat's stabilized again turn down heat enough to prevent scorching and let it carmelize a bit. Maybe five to fifteen minutes. Note: depending on moisture in the veggies you may wind up with too much juice for it to brown properly. Life in the big city, it'll still be good.

4) If you've got good browning, turn the heat back up to high, throw in your quarter cup of liquid and stir, making sure you get all the carmelized juices and scrape-y bits loose and into the liquid. If you don't have good browning, again, life in the big city -- add the wine anyway if you like, or, I guess, drink it if you're ok with that. If you do then let it simmer for three to five minutes (till the steam stops smelling like there's raw alcohol in it.)

5) Add the tomato stuff and stir. Add tomato paste, anchovy paste, and anything else still out on the counter. :-) Stir to mix.

6) Simmer very low, stirring occasionally, for up to 20 minutes *or*

6a) Transfer to a large pot or (my choice) crock pot and let cook for the rest of the day.