Foodie

[dancerjodi]

So how do you make from scratch tomato sauce?

The reason I used Alton's kind of weird recipie (slice roma tomatoes in half, put cut side down on a pan, bake in oven for 2.5 hrs w/ goodies sprinked over and then mill/mush, add white wine, cook off wine for a bit) was because all of the recipies I could find online called for canned tomatoes. I wasn't sure how to get the tomato out of the tomato, you know? I come from a hamburger helper family, so this stuff is new to me! :)

The things were smelling pretty good last night after an hour but BOY did they get overcooked. Burned tomatoes produce a horrible smell. I even put the hot oregano from our herb garden in there! Ah well. We'll see how the pumpkin soup experiment goes tonight.

I feel like a defective Italian or something. At least I can make good pizelles!

Off to get some things I need for or before Dragoncon . . .

Comments

[heinleinfan.livejournal.com]

I think tomato sauce is one of those things that just, whatever you do, it's probably going to be okay. David and I use canned tomatoes when we make ours, but I have made it before from fresh tomatoes, I just chopped them up.

Cans of tomato paste, chopped up tomatoes, seasonings, onions and yellow peppers, red wine, cook slow in a big pot for a long time.
I like my sauce good and chunky, though.

To make it smooth I'd puree it once it'd cooked down with a hand blender thing and thicken it with a little cornstarch.

Though baking the tomatoes first sounds awful tasty...

[tisana.livejournal.com]

If you feel like a defective Italian, I feel like a defective half-Italian for not knowing how to make sauce from scratch even with canned tomatoes. (Canned tomatoes are extremely useful things, but other veggies in cans are scary.)

Hm...what about peeling them (trick involving poaching for a minute with a "x" cut into the bottom), then simmering? I'd heard of baked tomato sauce, but it was all the veggies mixed together then cooked as a sort of casserole.
Have you checked Joy of Cooking? Very useful book for stuff like this. So's Cook's Illustrated (America's Test Kitchens).

[flamingfemme.livejournal.com]

Generally what we do in our family is cheat a little. You need to get canned tomato paste, because that's what gives it consistency... then you chop the tomatoes up really small, and add all the spices and stuff you want(onions, garlic, basil, oregano, a pinch of sugar, and, if you want, mushrooms, and/or meat) and simmer it in a big pot until it tastes good. I know it's not precise, but that's how we've always done it.....

[dionysios.livejournal.com]

Do you have food mill? Kinda sounds like you do.

What I do is this:

take tomatoes and quarter (or half if they're romas or other plum-types)
Chuck all the tomoatoes into a large stockpot. Simmer for 30 minutes, or untill they can all be mashed up.

Run them through a food mill, and store the juice in some other container.

Sautee or sweat (i'm not sure which is best, i sweated last night) your onions, garlic, tomatoes, hot sauasage, whatever you want to add for flavorings in a pot that will fit all of the tomato juice in it (I usually have to re-use my stockpot).

Add tomato juice, and a bay leaf or two and your other herbs. Simmer untill the sauce is as thick as you want it. Yesterday, it took us around seven hours. Stir every half hour or so.

As AB says, your paitence will be rewarded.

I think I heard somewhere that it was best to wait and add the basil right at the end, so that's what I'll usually do. My bay leaves, thyme and oregano get simmered in with everything else, though.

[andrewfeland.livejournal.com]

Heather's (Polish) grandmother makes the best tomato sauce I've ever had. She starts with fresh tomatoes, which she quarters and throws into a pot with olive oil and a little salt. She simmers them for a while (couple of hours, I think) and then puts them through a sieve to get rid of the skins and seeds.

She takes the sauce that's left and puts it back into the pot with a bit of sugar, whole garlic cloves, spices (fresh basil and oregano are all I can recall) and a little crushed red pepper.

She cooks her meatballs and sausage separately with onions and peppers, and then puts all of it in the sauce. She simmers it for so long that it turns a rich brownish-red color, and then caps it off by adding herbs and sugar to taste.

Her sauce almost seems carmelized, but boy, is it tasty.

We come to a pretty good approximation of it with canned tomato sauce. Use two 24oz cans of tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes to one small (4oz?) can of tomato paste. The key seems to be long, slow cooking.

I find the whole cloves of garlic (rather than using crushed, chopped, powdered, or granulated) give it a better garlic flavor, too.

[canongrrl.livejournal.com]

that actually sounds like my recipe for tomato soup! for sauce, I use half fresh, typicaly done that way or the was dave described above, and half canned (I'm lazy)

for me the key is the olive oil and garlic (I do crush, I haven't tried whole cloves) cooked first and the 1/4 fresh herbs added at the end

Hi Lady

[cintyber.livejournal.com]

If you want to come over somtime I will take you through a few diff. variations on sauces step by step..might be fun I can teach you how to make your own pasta while we are at it!

[the-leila.livejournal.com]

You should be able to substitute canned tomatoes for fresh, just dice them and reserve the liquid. Maybe just toss it all through a food processor if you have it.

I believe a few people above mentioned tomatoe paste, that really is kind of essential for good, smooth, thick-ish sauce. Another thing that helps the flavor out a lot is anything else you add (onion, garlic, etc) should be sauteed in olive oil, and just dump the excess oil right in with the veggies. It deepens the flavor nicely.

Oh, and the longer you simmer a sauce, the better it will be. That's pretty much a universal absolute for tomatoe sauces. If you can stick it all in a slow cooker for the day, you'll be very pleased with the results.

[stormcloud9.livejournal.com]

this is pretty similar to everyone elses, but what i do is (and this is all eyeballed, no measurements):

get fresh tomatoes on the vine, remove where the stem is attached, then coarsely blend them (just a few shots in the blender).

lightly sautee veeeery finely chopped garlic in olive oil, then add some red wine (nothing smoky like a merlot - more like a chianti or even cabernet).

you can opt to use tomato paste or not, you can do it either way.

put it all in a crock pot with lots of basil, oregano, a pinch of salt, and i like to use honey instead of sugar. just let it cook and reduce for a looooong while. the best sauce takes all day.

it's good just like that, but you can add optional stuff like chopped onions, olives, and/or peppers. lightly browned meatballs or chopped italian sausages are good to add, too, and impart a nice flavor.

[plaidsheep.livejournal.com]

A couple different variations on the theme

The way my mom did it growing up...

Take fresh tomatoes, whole, and submerge them in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes until the skin loosens.

Remove from boiling water and cool completely.

peel the skin with your fingers, cut the tops off (where the blossom end meets) and squeeze the seeds out into the sink.

Then mush the tomatoes into a pot where you've been browning some garlic and finely chopped green peppers in olive oil. If you're so inclined, also brown some Italian sausage in this same oilve oil, and remove - doing the final cooking step after your sauce is done.

Cook until it starts to get a bit pasty, then add some wine for the first deglazing. My mom would always add pasta water to the sauce to thin it (or more wine) as it got thick, if she was making a huge amount and/or was cooking sausage in the sauce. Add fresh basil, or dried "Italian Seasoning" to the sauce after the first pan deglazing (once you have a pan of mushy sauteed tomatoes/peppers/garlic)

How long to cook depends on whether or not you're cooking meat in the sauce. It doesn't really take too long - the slower you cook it the sweeter it is.

You could also use a combination of fresh tomatoes and crushed tomatoes.

A variation on that theme, the one I use most often, is very simple.

Remove the top of however many tomatoes you need (I use about 5 or 6 plum tomatoes for a big pan of penne w/sauce). Chop well. Start your pasta water going. Heat up some olive oil in a large pan. Brown some garlic (I use 2 cloves for "regular" and 4 for "don't breathe on anyone") and toss in the tomatoes. Toss this around in the pan for a bit until it starts to get mushy. Start to add ladelfuls of pasta cooking water a little at a time, and toss in your seasoning (I use fresh basil and fresh oregano from my garden). A few pinches of salt are good too. Cook your pasta until almost done, then toss your pasta into the sauce mixture and sautee the whole mess together until your pasta is "done" to taste and your tomatoes smell wonderful.

I put this particular dish together for my boyfriend fairly regularly when he's hungry for something late at night and I don't want to "go out" and get junk food. A little cheese and you're good to go.

those kooky Frenchies and their techniques

[xany.livejournal.com]

canned tomatoes are canned at the height of freshness, and are idea for the 10-or-so monthsof the year that you can't get really fresh tomatoes.

that said, to make tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes, the best way to begin is with a technique called "tomato concasse". it sounds fancy, but all it really means is "skinless, seedless tomatoes". the skins are undigestable, and the seeds can be bitter, so eliminating these will make any sauce better both in flavor and consistency.

simply put a pot of water on to boil, and set up a bowl of ice water next to it. remove the stem/core, and cut a small X in the skin on the bottom of each tomato. drop the tomatoes 2 or 3 at a time into the boiling water (depending on the size of your pot - you never want the water to come off the boil). leave the tomatoes in the water for 15-30 seconds, or until you see the skin just starting to peel away from where you scored the bottoms.

NOTE: you are not cooking the tomatoes at this point! you are simply getting the skin to pull back from the flesh for easy removal.

remove the tomatoes from the pot, and submerge in ice wayer for a few seconds. remove from ice water, peel off the skins, slice the tomatoes in half (imagine cutting along the equator), and squeeze out the seeds.

now, you're ready to make tomato sauce, veggie stock, or any of a hundred different applications!

to make a tomato sauce, simply toss the tomato flesh in a pot, add olive oil, garlic, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper, and simmer over low heat, breaking up the tomatoes with a spoon (for a rustic approach) or a stick blender (for a more uniform consistency). add a small splash of white wine or vodka [1], let it cook out, and serve.

you can also add some tomato paste to add more depth and richness to the sauce.

[1] I know neither of you drink, but please consider adding just a nip's worth of vodka. it will cook out. however there are flavor compounds in tomatoes that are alcohol-soluable and not water-soluable, so you really will extract the most flavor possible by doing this. it's not a huge deal if you don't, but it is highly recommended.

Re: those kooky Frenchies and their techniques

[cris.livejournal.com]

just backing up Xany to say that this is almost the same technique that I use for making tomato sauce. The extra time required to skin and seed the tomatoes isn't that long in the grand scheme of things, and it does work rather well for consistency if you don't have a food mill. The only change that I make is chopping up the tomato flesh after seeding and before adding to the point to get a slightly smoother consistency without using a blender.