How to make sauce: lessons from my mom’s recipe.

For my inaugural post, I dedicate this to my friends. 

Tomato sauce “from scratch” is not a very hard process.  Yes, it is more work than pouring from your preferred commercially brand jar, but within a half hour, you too can have a delicious homemade sauce.   

It’s all in the ingredients.  Garlic, onion, tomatoes., and a few spices and herbs.  Chop 2-3 cloves of garlic.  If you don’t like garlic in your final sauce, you can crack each clove, and then fish them out of your sauce.  Dice 1/3 to 1/2 of a medium sweet onion.    Saute in 3 tbsp olive oil or enough to coat the bottom of the pot.  

Add black pepper, red pepper, and salt.  Add the spices to your preference, starting at 1/4 tsp to whatever spiciness desired.  I like to add the spices at this step.  Their oils begin to open up when heated.  Also, I add salt here to sweat the onions and garlic, and cook until yellow/ light caramel (not brown) in color.  

After about 5 minutes (depends on how hot your flame is) add your tomotoes.  In the summer months, it is always best to have fresh tomatoes, but as a staple, I always keep in a can of organic Muir Glen tomatoes (28 oz) in my cupboard.  I like these because they aren’t very acidic and have a nice aroma.  Traditional American-Italians swear by that “yellow” can; but my mom uses these, and my mom is the best cook I know!  (She also recommends Trader Joe’s organic tomatoes too).  Diced and crush tomatoes are great to use, because  of the consistency they provide, but if you want a smoother sauce you can puree your final sauce with a hand blender.  Stir and add 2-3 leaves of basil.  Again, fresh is best, but in the summer, my parents will freeze all our basil, and I’ll take 2-3 frozen leaves. 

My secret ingredient: carrot. Yes, my mother showed this trick a long time ago, and even then, I too was thinking, “whaaaa?”

Bring to a boil, and then cook on medium heat for about 25 minutes.  After your sauce can coat the back of a spoon, it’s done.

Enjoy!