How to Make Pasta Sauce
Jarred pasta sauces have come a long way, but, still, none of them hold a candle to homemade. If you've been relying on jarred stuff because you don't think you have the time or skills to learn how to make pasta sauce from scratch, you'll be pleasantly surprised by the recipe below.Since fresh tomatoes and basil are key to this classic recipe, you'll obviously get the best results during the summer months when both are in season (and hence less expensive) and at their peak flavor. But that doesn't mean you have to go without homemade pasta sauce in the winter! Both tomatoes and fresh herbs are available year-round at most grocery stores these days, so you can whip up a batch anytime. Alternatively, you can make a huge batch during summer to stock in your freezer for months when tomatoes are not in season.
Transcript
Hi, I'm Miranda with recipe.com, and today I'm gonna show
you how to make fresh tomato sauce. Now, a good
tomato sauce is at the heart of so many great
meals; pizza, pasta, saute, vegetables, or soups. So, you can
take advantage of the summer harvest freezing a nice batch
of the sauce and you will be one step closer
to a garden fresh meal. So, I have our ingredients
all laid out here.
Let's get started. We have 4-1/2 cups of plum tomatoes;
a quarter cup of extra virgin olive oil; 3/4 cup
of chopped garlic, it's about 2 heads. Then, we have
4 cups of diced onions, 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt, 1/4
cup of tomato paste, 1 teaspoon of dried oregano, 1/2
cup of red wine, 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar,
1/2 cup of wonderfully fresh chopped basil, and then freshly
ground pepper to taste.
Now, we have this large pot of water over here
that's been brought to a boil. So, what I'm going
to do is with this paring knife I'm going to
start by coring the tomatoes. So, just making a little
incision at the top, I'm just going kind of pop
out literally the little core, this little steamy part just
like that. So, see perfect, so get that out of
the way. So, as what I did to the top,
now I'm gonna score the bottom. So, we're just gonna
make like a little x, and we've scored the bottom.
Now, in batches, I'm going to transfer my tomatoes to
the boiling water and I'm going to let them boil
for 30 seconds to 2 minutes or until the skins
have loosened. Okay, so my skins have loosened. I can
start taking them out. I'm gonna use a slot spoon,
so you can see how the skin has split. This
is going to make peeling this abreast. So, I'm just
going to give this a little ice bath. We're [unk]
this. I have a large bowl here with ice water
and I'm gonna let them sit in here for 1
minute until they're cold a little bit,
and I'm ready to handle them. Okay, so, the next
step, these have cold, we're are going to peel these.
I have this nice bib bowl here and I have
a sieve fashioned on top and using a paring knife,
but honestly, I may not even really needing for this
for coming off so well. We're just going to peel
these and just let the peels fall in to the
sieve, so perfect. Now, with the paring knife, we're just
gonna cut this in half lengthwise and just with my
hand like with a little cute little finger, I'm just
gonna scoop out the seeds,
perfect, and then scoop again, just kind of scoop this
out until all the seeds out and then through the
sieve, you can put your tomatoes to the side. You're
just going to squeeze of all kind of any juice
that you can of the seeds and out of the
skins and just kind of push those to the bowl
below, and then I'm gonna continue with the rest of
your tomatoes.
Okay, so look how much great juice I extracted from
the seeds and the skins and then I just coarsely
chop these tomatoes and we're ready to set this aside
because we are now going to heat our oil. So
I've got this large [unk] or you could use a
Dutch oven, whichever. So, we're gonna heat this, pop our
garlic in and stirring constantly, we're to cook the garlic
for about 2 to 3 minutes or until it starts
to color and get really fragrant.
Already, it smells incredible. Alright, now check out my garlic,
starting to get some color here, looks beautiful. Now, we're
going to add in the onions and the salt, and
I'm gonna pop a cover on this, stirring occasionally and
I'm gonna let this cook until the onions are nice
and tender about 10 to 15 minutes. Alright, check out
our onions and garlic. They are wonderfully tender. The smell
is just incredible in here. So, I know that it
is time to add in my tomato paste
and the oregano, and I'm gonna cook this in here
also stirring occasionally for about 2 to 4 minutes or
until the tomato paste begins to brown a little bit
on the bottom. Alright, look how nice and kind of
coating the bottom is getting a little bit, perfect. It's
now time to add in the red wine and then
the red wine vinegar, and we're gonna let this come
to a simmer, which is doing nicely already until it
reduced slightly
about 2 minutes. So, that's reduced. It looks great. It
is time to add in the tomatoes and that juice
that we squeezed out. So, we're still leaving the basil
and the pepper for later. We've not forgotten about them.
Look at that and over there. Let's give this a
nice stir to incorporate everything. I'm gonna cover this, reduce
the heat, and let it just gently simmer for about
25 minutes or until the tomatoes have mostly broken down.
Alright,
so check out our tomato sauce. The tomatoes have broken
down beautifully. This looks fantastic, smell even better. Do not
forget about our basil. We're just gonna sprinkle that right
in. Give it a nice toss. Make sure our heat
is off, fantastic. I cannot express how good this smells,
but I will stop trying because our very last step
is to puree this. So depending upon the consistency that
you like,
you are going to either puree all of this in
a food processor or blender. I'm gonna use a food
processor here of if you like your sauce to be
a little bit kind of chunky like I do, you'll
just puree half like I about to do, and then
just mix the pureed part back in. Oh my gosh,
so good, so exciting, and then you'll be good to
go. So, I'm just gonna give this a few pushes,
and if you're working with a food processor, always make
sure that you pay attention line
where it says max liquid line. That is an important
thing to know. And so you'll just do this in
batches, but for me because I want it to stay
kind of chunky, I'm just gonna puree this a little
bit. Lift this up and I'm just going to add
it right back in, remove the blade, look at that.
Look how gorgeous. Now, I could have mixed even longer,
but that will give it a really nice texture. Its
consistency is amazing.
It smells fantastic. I'm so excited. So, I'm going to
enjoy some of these tonight maybe over some pasta and
freeze the rest. So, I can enjoy fresh tomato sauce
all year long.
What You'll Need
- 4 1/2 pounds plum tomatoes
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3/4 cup chopped garlic, (about 2 heads)
- 4 cups diced onions, (3-4 medium)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 cup tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
- freshly ground pepper, to taste
Step By Step
1
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place a large bowl of ice water next to the stove. Using a sharp paring knife, core the tomatoes and score a small X into the flesh on the bottom.
2
Place the tomatoes in the boiling water, in batches, until the skins are slightly loosened, 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
3
Using a slotted spoon, transfer the tomatoes to the ice water and let sit in the water for 1 minute before removing.
4
Place a sieve over a bowl; working over it, peel the tomatoes using a paring knife, and let the skins fall into the sieve.
5
Halve the tomatoes crosswise and scoop out the seeds with a hooked finger, letting the sieve catch the seeds. Press on the seeds and skins to extract any extra juice. Coarsely chop the peeled tomatoes and set aside.
6
Heat oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant and just beginning to color, 2 to 3 minutes. Add onions and salt, stir to coat, cover and cook, stirring often and adjusting heat as necessary to prevent burning, until soft and turning golden, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and oregano and cook, stirring often, until the tomato paste is beginning to brown on the bottom of the pan, 2 to 4 minutes.
7
Pour in wine and vinegar; bring to a simmer, scraping up any browned bits with a spoon. Cook until reduced slightly, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes and any juice; return to a simmer, stirring often. Reduce heat to maintain a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes are mostly broken down, about 25 minutes.
8
Remove from the heat; stir in basil and pepper. Transfer the sauce, in batches, to a blender or food processor. (Use caution when pureeing hot liquids.) Process until desired consistency. For a smooth sauce, puree it all; for a chunky sauce, puree just half and mix it back into the rest of the sauce.
9
MAKE AHEAD TIP: Cover and refrigerate for up to 5 days or freeze for up to 6 months.
Once you master the basics, you can play around with the recipe to tailor the sauce to your personal tastes. You may prefer a little more garlic, want it a little sweeter, or prefer a bit of heat from crushed red pepper.
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