Classic Tomato Sauce
(Makes 6 servings)
Ingredients
3 lb. fresh Roma tomatoes (or a 28-oz. can of whole, peeled tomatoes)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 medium onion, diced
Extra-virgin olive oil for sauteing
4 fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions 1. If using fresh tomatoes, blanch them in boiling water for 10 seconds. This separates the skin from the flesh.
2. Drain the tomatoes and push through a food mill to remove the skin and seeds to create a pulp. If you don't have a food mill, push tomatoes through a fine mesh colander.
3. In a deep saucepan, saute garlic and onion in olive oil (extra-virgin, please) until tender but not brown. (In the summertime, when tomatoes are at their best, skip the onion and cut back on the garlic.)
4. Add the tomato pulp from step 2.
5. Add the 4 torn (not cut), basil leaves and salt and pepper to taste.
6. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for 15-20 minutes. At this point, you'll have your
passatta (tomato sauce), which can be used as a fresh-tasting pasta sauce or as a base for the recipes below.
Red Sauce Glossary
(Plus: nonscientific recipes from Donatella Arpaia, chef of NYC restaurants Dona and David Burke & Donatella)
The Real Ragu: In Italian cookery, ragu simply means a tomato sauce with meat. This is what your Italian-American friends, bafflingly, call “gravy.”
Saute 1 cup each of chopped carrots, celery, onion, and a few diced garlic cloves in olive oil in a deep sauce pan.
Take about 1 1/2 pounds of beef (Arpaia likes lean ground chuck -- though, she says, “everyone has their own combination,” such as a mix of veal, pork, and beef) and crumble it.
Brown the crumbled meat for about 10 minutes. Then add in your passata (the tomato pulp from above recipe), salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil and then simmer for at least two hours, stirring occasionally.
“That’s why they call it Sunday ragu,” she says, “because it takes time. The mothers would be home all day.” Don’t try to rush this dish. For extra flavor, Arpaia's mother would throw a pork chop or a couple of pork ribs in the pot. They emerge meltingly tender.
Puttanesca: This sauce, said to have been whipped up by Italian hookers with whatever they had around after a hard day’s work, is an easy tweak on the classic red sauce.
In the sauteing phase of the marinara, add some capers, chopped and pitted black olives, and a few anchovies.
Arrabiata: Known as angry sauce, it's as spicy as you want it to be.
In the simmering phase of the marinara recipe above, add a sliced hot, fresh red chile (Arpaia prefers fresh peppers for their “real heat,” though you can also use dried chile pepper flakes).
Amartriciana: This is the perfect sauce for bacon-lovers, and, Arpaia adds, “It’s great for last-minute entertaining; people don’t realize how easy it is.”
First cook five or six slices of bacon (chopped) in a little olive oil until crispy. Then add a chopped onion and cook until it caramelizes. Add the tomato puree and a half glass of red wine. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes and serve on bucatini pasta. Sprinkle with grated Pecorino Romano cheese.
-- The Nest Editors
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