This is an easy tomato sauce that you can make from canned tomatoes and season to your tastes. It'll take about a half hour and requires very little work. And it's 8 million times better than the stuff you'll get in a jar.
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Signing UpStep 1: Ingredients:
- one 28 oz can crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce, no salt or low salt preferred
- one medium onion
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- salt
- pepper
- Italian seasoning or oregano & basil
- red chili flakes or dried red chilies
- red wine vinegar
- olive, canola or vegetable oil, for sauteing
I also prefer crushed tomatoes to tomato sauce - crushed has a lot more body and some chunks. But sauce is great if you like little to no chunks.
If you'd like to do a marinara style sauce, use half an onion and equal amounts of diced carrots and celery. They add tons of flavor!
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Thank you for all your wonderful recipes, You are some lady.
Kind regards.
...one of us...
Sunshiine
If you want to get a bit more fancy, I recommend adding one or two pieces of star anise. You might think that's a bit exotic for an otherwise traditional italian tomato sauce but it really just helps rounding it off. Don't forget to take them out again before you serve/puree it.
See this link for more info:
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/the-7-foods-experts-wont-eat-547963.html
Depending on your preference, you can peel the tomatoes or not. (http://www.joyfulabode.com/2008/05/04/how-to-easily-peel-tomatoes/) I never do, but some people hate the peels. I always de-seed them, though! Only they're cleaned out and possibly peeled, roughly cut them into chunks and throw them in a hot pan with some olive oil and diced onion and let them cook down for a few minutes. Mash them up with the back of a wooden spoon and add some salt to get the onions and tomatoes to release some water.
After the onions are soft, add the garlic and spices and saute for a moment, and then add a small amount of water (normally no more than 1/2 cup) to make it more saucy and let it simmer for 15 minutes with a lid on, and then break up the tomatoes some more. You just keep beating up the tomatoes and adding water until it's a consistency you like, really. :) I like mine chunky, but you could always blend it, too.
Celery is not added to sauce, gravy (like chicken/beef/lamb) yes yes yes, not tomato sauce.
use crushed or whole (then you puree them) , tomato sauce IS nothing more then tomato paste and water, which is ok if you use it with a few cans of home puree'd whole tomato. Sauce made just from paste is limp.
Celery is not added to sauce, gravy (like chicken/beef/lamb) yes yes yes, not tomato sauce.
Oh yes FERGIT THE VINEGAR .......Are you making bar-BEEE-QUE sauce?
RED WINE is what you want.
Happy cooking I am off to make Stuffed peppers maybe mexican, maybe plain maybe Eyetalian, not sure yet..........mmmmmmm
When I'm in a hurry I add a jar of chunky salsa to a jar of sauce, some extra spices and what nots and let it simmer for a bit.
When I have the time I do pretty much like you did except I use a slow cooker and fire roasted tomatoes, the ingredients you listed along with bell peppers and a good red wine. After it has cooked awhile I hit it with an immersion blender.
For a meatier tasting sauce, add roasted beef or lamb bones to the cooking sauce.
For a spicier sauce (mine when not expecting company) add some jalapenos or habaneros
I do like adding bell peppers from time to time, and jalapenos too! So good.
Turkish cooking has pretty much the same thing, but with a tablespoon of sugar and some paprika. Pop it on your nachos, or with your shish kebabs. I feel an Instructable coming on...
Even if all you have in the house is a can of tomatoes and a clove of garlic (and olive oil/salt/pepper), this beats the pants off most jarred sauces. And given that it can be made in the time it takes to bring your pasta water to boil and cook your pasta, there is hardly a time when you would have an excuse not to make homemade sauce.
Warning: once you've developed a taste for this homemade kind, you will no longer enjoy the jarred stuff. Here's a tip if this happens, and you still want to be able to have an emergency-backup jar in the pantry: look for a brand that uses *no* sugar (or sugar-like-substance) in the ingredients list. Those are more acceptable to the palate that has been spoiled in this way. :-) My store carries only one, called Francesco Rinaldi Tobe Healthy, and I like the Tomato & Basil (only when I am feeling super-lazy, or short on ingredients).