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Sitting in a restaurant at the beginning of September, I overhearda waitressask another customer, “How was your summer?”
He replied, “So far, so good.”
It made mesmile. So far? Doesn’t he realize that school buses loaded with backpack-clad children are rumbling down the street as he speaks? Or maybe instead, kids have started their Zoom classes and online learning? #2020
The more I thought about it, though, the more I had to agree with his present-tense assessment of summer. Despite the fact that school has started, early September really is prime summer time here in the Northwest. The days are comfortable and hazy. And our gardens and produce markets are bursting with fruits and vegetables of every shape and size.
This tomato sauce recipe features fresh produce that can be pulled out of your garden or piled into your grocery cart right now: tomatoes, garlic, onions, and basil. The tomatoes can be those sweet little cherry tomatoes orthe big uglyfellas (who still have great personalities). Or a combination of the two.
Drizzle in some olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt to round off the super simple ingredient list. Add a loaf of crusty bread and a fresh salad and dinner is served.
And the steps? They are so fast and easy. What? Are you rolling your eyes right now?
If making homemade tomato sauce calls to mind standing over a bubbling pot, stirring your afternoon away, think again. Other than piling all of the fresh ingredients into the pans, this recipe requires very little hands-on time. If you have a couple of 9×13″ baking pans, a knife, and a blender or food processor you are good to go.
You can adjust everything to suit your own tastes. If you prefer a thinner sauce, bake just until the tomatoes start to burst and break down. If you like a thick, hearty sauce, then keep the pans in the oven longer, stirring occasionally. The ingredients will simmer down to a slightly sticky, sweet sauce. Once it’s pureed with the fresh basil, the sauce will be bursting with flavor and you will be swearing off store-bought sauce for life.
Up to your eyeballs in tomatoes right now? This is a great recipe to make in big batches and freeze for later use as pasta or pizza sauce or soup base. You can freeze it in containers or bags pressed flat to stack easily in your freezer.
This is definitely one of my favorite things to have stashed away in the freezer to create hot pizza, lasagna, or soup on those gray winter days. It instantly takes me back to the best days of summer. You know, September.
Roasted Marinara Sauce
The amounts listedin this recipe are just a good place to start.Adjust the ingredientsto suit your tastes.
Ingredients
8 c. cherry tomatoes or 24 medium tomatoes 2 medium onions, quartered 8-10 garlic cloves, peeled olive oil salt basil leaves 1-3 cans tomato paste, optional
Wash and stem the cherry tomatoes or wash and core the whole tomatoes. Split them evenly, in a single layer, between 2 9×13″ baking dishes. The larger tomatoes can be left whole; they will break down during the roasting process.
Toss the quartered onions and peeled garlic cloves evenly between the two pans. Drizzle with olive oil and season generously with salt.
Roast at 425 for 30-40 minutes. The timing isn’t an exact science. The combination will smell incredibly fragrant, and the tomatoes and onions will look wrinkled, roasted, and slightly charred. For a thicker sauce, cook longer and stir occasionally to keep from burning.
Remove the pans from the oven and set on the counter to coolfor 10-15 minutes.
Place a large colander inside a large bowl and dump the pans into the colander to strain out the juice. Set the juice aside.
Scoop the tomato mixture into the bowl of a blender or food processor; add the basil leaves. Puree until it reaches the desired consistency. Dump the pureed tomato sauce into the reserved juice and stir until thoroughly combined. Season with additional salt, if needed. (You could also add tomato paste if you desire a thicker sauce.)
Serve immediately as pasta or pizza sauce or freeze in plastic containers or bags for lateruse.
Time. The time you put into a tomato sauce is just as important as the ingredients. If you taste a store-bought marinara and deem it pretty good, but you want to amplify things, try cooking it down. Concentrating the flavors may be all it takes to give it that home-cooked vibe.
Long, slow cooking concentrates the flavors and brings out sweetness by breaking down carbohydrates. Some of those carbohydrates caramelize, giving rich, "brown" flavors like those in cooked meat. Let it go too long, though, and you can over-concentrate the flavors. Eventually, it will even burn.
If your tomato sauce is too acidic and verging on bitter, turn to baking soda, not sugar. Yes, sugar might make the sauce taste better, but good old baking soda is an alkaline that will help balance the excess acid. A little pinch should do the trick.
Stirring in thick, dense tomato paste is a tried-and-true way to add body to a marinara or tomato sauce. Tomato paste is concentrated tomato, sometimes with small amounts of other ingredients like salt or stabilizers, and its texture is so stiff that a spoon will stand up in it.
Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-high heat, then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of oil float free of the tomatoes.
Sauces that are tomato based.. start the sauce with lid off. When it starts to simmer rapidly, turn down heat to med-low and cover until sauce is reduced to your liking.
Similar to creamy sauces like Alfredo, or meaty sauces like ragu, tomato sauce is naturally low in fat, and as a result, sometimes becomes too thick and too starchy when it's been tossed with pasta. The addition of butter helps to loosen and emulsify the sauce, making it smooth and creamy.
A small amount of fat—extra-virgin olive oil or butter—is essential to good pasta sauce texture. Without fat, you have at best watery sauce (nobody has ever said, "Waiter, my pasta is not quite wet enough"), and at worst sauce that over-thickens with starch alone and takes on a pasty texture.
How Long to Simmer Marinara. A marinara sauce doesn't need a long simmering time. Just 20 to 30 minutes is absolutely enough. Any longer than that and you do run the risk of it becoming more bitter.
But sometimes it's just too watery. In most cases, the reason is that it hasn't been simmered long enough. You see, fresh tomatoes contain a lot of liquids, which are released during cooking. And if you don't give them time to evaporate, your sauce will be diluted.
Great tomato flavor is all about balancing acidity and sweetness. Too much of either can leave you with asauce that tastes one-dimensional. Many sources recommend adding a pinch of baking soda to a sauce that's overly tart, which raises the pH and makes it less acidic.
Up until the early 1900s, the U.S. had a limited tomato supply, and it didn't stack up to Italian standards. It is widely held that Italian immigrants began adding sugar to their sauce to make up for the overly acidic tomatoes they were forced to work with in their new home.
This authentic Italian Pasta Sauce recipe is filled with fresh herbs and Italian tomatoes. The addition of carrots gives the sauce the perfect amount of sweetness without needing sugar. This tomato sauce recipe goes great with your favorite type of pasta and is perfect for Sunday dinners.
Your spaghetti sauce may taste bland due to insufficient seasoning. Try adding more salt, herbs (like basil, oregano, or thyme), and other flavor enhancers like garlic, onion, or red pepper flakes. Also, a dash of sugar can balance flavors and bring out the natural sweetness of tomatoes.
Cooking the tomato sauce over a low and steady heat with the lid on is essential to obtain a pleasantly thick consistency. The lid keeps the moisture inside the pan, preventing the sauce from drying out too quickly. The low heat then allows the flavours to develop gradually, slowly softening the vegetables.
Add a little milk to tomato sauce for a sweeter taste to offset the acidity of the tomatoes. This is a well-kept secret amongst Italian grandmothers. In northern Italy, Bolognese sauce is never made without milk! It can be added at the beginning or end of cooking.
The purpose of adding a pinch of sugar to tomato sauce is to balance the acidity of the tomatoes (per The Guardian). Every good cook knows to taste the sauce before adding any potentially unnecessary ingredients, and sugar is no exception.
Introduction: My name is Arline Emard IV, I am a cheerful, gorgeous, colorful, joyous, excited, super, inquisitive person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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cookbook by Giada de Laurentiis.Follow Frugal Living NW on Pinterest!
