Basic Tomato Sauce for Preserving, or for Serving Fresh
This is the tomato sauce in every Tuscan farmwife’s repertoire, made fresh for the day’s pasta and preserved in jars and bottles for the dispensa, the pantry. Please use it as a free-flowing model. Don’t feel you must have exact ingredients in the precise quantities we have listed. If you reach into the fridge and discover the celery has gone bad, just leave it out. If you have only one onion, don’t worry. The glory of Italian cooking is its adaptability to every imaginable circumstance. Really the only thing you must have for a basic tomato sauce is . . . tomatoes.
But what kind? We prefer plum tomatoes, because they are dense, with a greater ratio of flesh to juice, than round, juicy salad tomatoes. San Marzano and Roma are two plum varieties widely grown in North America. In Italy plum tomatoes are for cooking, round tomatoes (often slightly underripe) for salad, and cherry tomatoes, like the famous Pachinos from the deep south of Sicily, are a whole other category used in both sauces and salads. If salad tomatoes are all that’s available, use them by all means, but remember that it will take longer to cook down the juices and there will be a consequent diminishing of flavor. The most important factor is that the tomatoes must be full of fragrance and flavor, perfectly ripe—and moreover, ripened on the vine and not in some gassy warehouse.
And, really, the riper the better: At farm stands and farmers’ markets, you may find a bargain in overripe tomatoes that are slightly bruised or with split skins, the kind that won’t last more than a day longer. Those are exactly what you want for this. Take them home, rinse them off, peel them, cut away the bruised sections, and chop very coarsely.
We give quantities for 5 pounds of tomatoes to make 4 to 5 pints of sauce, but if you simply want sauce for tonight’s pasta, halve the quantities except for the olive oil. And if you come across a tomato bargain at your farm stand and wish to put up or preserve tomato sauce for the winter (directions follow), the recipe is easily doubled or even tripled.
MAKES ABOUT 8 TO 10 CUPS SAUCE, TO FILL 4 TO 5 PINT CANNING JARS
3 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
1 or 2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped
2 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
½ bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves and stems, coarsely chopped
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
5 pounds ripe red tomatoes, preferably plum tomatoes, peeled and seeded (optional), coarsely chopped
½ cup water or dry white wine if needed
Pinch sugar (optional)
Combine the garlic, onions, celery, carrots, and parsley with the oil in a large heavy saucepan. Add salt and pepper to taste and set the pan over medium-low heat. As the vegetables start to cook, add about ½ cup water and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the water cooks off and the vegetables start to soften and give off their fragrance, about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the pan and stir. When the tomatoes release their juice and the liquid starts to simmer, cover the pan, lower the heat to low, and cook for about 30 minutes, removing the lid from time to time to give the contents a good stir. (If the tomatoes are very dense and do not have a lot of juice, you can help the cooking process along by adding ½ cup water or wine.) The liquid should be simmering rather than boiling.
Cook a total of about 45 minutes, or until the tomatoes are thoroughly soft and have yielded up all their juice. Now raise the heat back to medium and cook rapidly, uncovered, to evaporate the juice and reduce the tomatoes to a thick sauce. (This step may not be necessary if the sauce is already thick.)
When the tomatoes are done, put them through the large holes of a food mill, or use a handheld immersion blender to blend to the texture you want. Taste the sauce and add more salt and pepper if desired, or a pinch of sugar to bring out the natural sweetness of the fruit.
You should have 8 to 10 cups of sauce in the end. The sauce freezes very well: Put it in 1-cup containers for a supply that will last in your freezer for several months and provide a quick pasta sauce throughout the winter. Or preserve la pomarola in canning jars—tomatoes have so much natural acid that they don’t need more than 5 or 10 minutes in a boiling water bath and they will keep all winter.
CANNING TOMATOES For 10 cups of sauce, have ready five scrupulously clean glass canning jars (1-pint size) and lids to go on them. Stand the jars on a wooden counter or board so they will not crack from the heat. Bring a teakettle of water to a rolling boil and fill each canning jar right up to the top. Set the lids in a bowl and fill the bowl with boiling water.
Return the pomarola to the heat and bring it back to simmering. Carefully tip the water out of a jar and fill the jar with very hot sauce right up to the top, leaving about ¼ inch of space. Screw down the lid and set aside. When all the jars are filled, put them in a deep kettle or a canning kettle. If using a normal kitchen kettle or pot (your pasta cooker is ideal for small quantities like this), line the bottom with a couple of kitchen towels to keep the jars from banging about. Set the jars on top and fill the kettle with very hot water to cover the jars. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, then let simmer for 5 to 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let the water cool down until you are able to remove the jars. Set on the wooden counter, and when they are thoroughly cool, the jar lids will retract and click, indicating a complete seal. At this point the jars can be stored in a dark cupboard or pantry until ready to use.