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.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-08-29 04:47 pm (UTC)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.