Easy Italian Recipes
A very basic but much in demand is a traditional Italian tomato sauce recipe. I’ve gone ahead and written down one that is based on uncooked, crushed tomatoes. A tomato sauce is quickly made and can be used in lots of ways. It can put an extra touch on chili, pasta an dother sauces. And because it’s so easy to do, I advise you not to buy a can in the supermarket. So, here we go!
Let’s start with the ingredients:
- 1 large mason jar of homemade crushed, plum, tomatoes (uncooked) or 2, 28 ounce cans of crushed San Marzano tomatoes. If the price doesn’t blow your budget, opt for canned san Marzano tomatoes from Italy (San Marzano and Cento both use tomatoes from Italy)
- 1 large red onion finely diced
- 1-2 garlic cloves finely diced
- 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil (for sautéing onion and garlic)
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried Oregano (if you can find the imported kind from Italy it will make a difference)
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
Start with a medium sized pot with a lid – Le Creuset makes a nice 8.5 round casserole pot but you don’t have to get fancy (any pot will do). Begin to heat your pot and thereafter (about 4-5 minutes later) add the finely diced onions and garlic (along with a bit of salt and pepper). Sautee the onions and garlic until the mixture becomes translucent and, thereafter, add the crushed tomatoes and stir well. Bring the mixture to a boil and then set your heat to simmer. Next, add the sugar, dried oregano, pepper, and salt to your pot and mix well. Let the mixture simmer for 35-45 minutes without the lid (you can keep the lid on but your sauce will become a bit thicker). You’ll want to mix the sauce every 15 minutes or so. Some folks let tomato sauce simmer “for hours”, but I haven’t find that a longer cooking period increases flavor (what it does do is turn tomato sauce into thick gravy, which isn’t very appealing).
Once the sauce has finished cooking transfer the contents of the pot to a food mill; note, the food mill should sit on a large bowl to catch the processed tomato sauce (I like to do this in the sink so I don’t make a mess). A food mill is a great, inexpensive, tool and it yields a perfect consistency for tomatoes sauce (and also opens up the flavor of all the ingredients).
That’s it, you’re done with making homemade tomato sauce! Note if you want to turn the above tomato sauce recipe into a “meat sauce” simply use your pot to brown 4-5 pork spare ribs, 6-7 medium sized meatballs, and 4-5 links of pork sausage. You’ll want to remove the meat after browning and begin sautéing the onion and garlic mixture. Add the meat to your pot after adding the seasonings and cook the entire 45 minute time period (the key with getting a flavorful sauce via meat is to brown the ribs, meatballs, and sausage well).
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