Search engines are filled with AI generated garbage. Please help.
you can literally just chop them up and boil them with spices, it works absolutely fine.
You don’t need all this fancy stuff (blanching tomatoes is insane to me, as is removing the skin: the skin is nutritious and makes the sauce thick!), just try a bunch of different things and see what you personally like best.
I like to fry up some diced onions and a couple cloves of garlic; then dump in the chopped tomatoes (i recommend one of these pull-cord chopping things, absolutely liquefies the tomatoes), a bit of vinegar (balsamic is always nice), and some spices (lots of vegeta) and let it simmer for as long as i can be arsed.
When in doubt I look to serious eats for a recipe. Specifically Kenji Lopez-Alt. Here’s his red sauce recipe.
This used canned but you can just replace it with fresh. My wife and I make a pasta pomodoro where you just slightly cook fresh tomatoes with some garlic and basil. You cook the tomatoes in a pan with olive oil and garlic while your pasta cooks to al dente. Once cooked add some pasta water and cook to desired thickness (uncover to reduce liquid or covered to add). Throw in the pasta cook for 1 minute to cover and throw on basil. We do it with a burrata in the bowl as well. It’s amazing and so easy
Do everything in the first paragraph in the nicely detailed guide by Zeppo, then instead put the tomatoes whole into a blender, (even the stalks fuck it, coz they’re filled with goodness) chuck some tomato paste, a little vinegar some sugar, water and pepper and blend the fuck out of it. I like lots paprika in mine. When putting it in the pan cook for as long and slow as possible. At least an hour if you can spare the time. Plum tinned tomatoes are probably the best, but i know you asked about fresh.
Ooooh, maybe not the stems. It won’t kill you but they’re high in alkaloids that can cause digestive issues. Your recipe sounds like mine, but I finish by wilting just a bit of spinach in it for colour and those good vitamins, minus the toilet tax.
Sounds odd, but i love the smell of the stems. To me they smell more of tomato’s than the actual fruit itself so I just blend it in! Personally never had an issue.
You be careful with those stems. I agree they smell better than the tomatoes themselves but they could make someone sick.
A thought: Garnish it with a stem on the side of the plate and take a whiff with each bite. Pinky finger up, because this is Sophisticated Cuisine.
Ok will do, I admit I only ever do this for myself!
I think I will try it myself next time I cook tomatoes, even canned ones. I have a scraggly grape-tomato vine with only enough fruit on it to give one a day to my turtle, but I could cut a fresh sprig for maximum scent.
Never a good idea to eat green parts of the nightshade family
That’s how you get orange tomato sauce
My wife says it’s like vodka sauce lol
I have two ways that i semi regularly use:
Onion fine dice, oil in pan, sweat onion till translucent, dice tomatoes, herbs incl garlic and chilli flakes in the oil for a short while(dealers choice), tomatoes in, lid on for 10min, lid off until you’re at the right consistency, salt, maybe add sugar if not sweet enough.
Same ingredients in a glass backing dish, oven at 180°C for 35+ mins.
I don’t care to remove tomato skins so I never do.
I usually make quick sauces with my pasta and use whole canned peeled tomatoes. To alter for fresh, I’d score the tomatoes with a knife, then blanch and peel the skin off as the first step.
My default tomato-based sauce is:
- olive oil
- a few whole tomatoes (peeled) – maybe about ~3 decently sized ones?
- garlic (either fresh minced or garlic powder)
- dried basil
- salt
- 1/4 tsp or so of capers
- a few kalamata olives
- pinch of MSG
- pinch of cayenne pepper
When using fresh garlic, I add it to the pan first – with garlic powder I add it with the other seasonings. I basically just combine everything, break up the tomatoes with a spatula, and let it cook down on medium heat (stirring occasionally) while I boil my spaghetti – then finish the spaghetti in the sauce.
I usually make this just for myself and eyeball the ingredients – so unfortunately, I don’t have exact measurements for most of it.
This is basically a variant of spaghetti puttanesca without anchovies – feel free to add those instead of (or in addition to) the MSG if you’d prefer.
No, don’t add anchovies. For God’s sake
Anchovies add excellent umami to a good tomato sauce. Quite a small amount is used and the fishy flavour is undetectable in the final product when done right. But to e0qdks point, MSG is an ok substitute if its that big of a dealbreaker.
They made a fairly standard puttanesca sauce. That’s a fucking great sauce to know how to do.
Don’t need search engines for this. Martha Stewart has got you covered.
Idk if anyone said it yet but
- Blanche*1 the tomatoes,4 or 5 tomatoes will do.
- Mash them in the emptied /same pot or a sauce pan with heat on low with a little bit of olive oil. 2(a). If your doing any meat or caramelized onions, start cooking that in a separate pan.
- Start boiling water with like a pinch/teaspoon of salt for your pasta
- I’ve your tomato puree is bubbling, add onion powder, garlic powder, black pepper and a little bit of smoked paprika. Stir
- Once the pasta is done, add some pasta water to the tomato sauce. If you had that meat/onions from 2(a) add here. Stir
- Cut the heat once bubbling and add a little bit of vinegar and stir in off the heat. Serve with Parmesan and basil
*1 blanching is when you cut a couple x’s on the tomato skin, boil it for roughly 5-6 minutes then transfer it to cold water. Then you can easily peel and remove the tomato skins. If you don’t care/like tomato skins then skip blanching
Hope that helped
https://memoriediangelina.com/2012/04/22/tomato-sauce-101/
The whole site is a goldmine.
Sometimes the simpler the better. KISS. https://www.31daily.com/worlds-best-pasta-sauce/
5 TABLESPOONS of butter? Jesus. That looks awful.
Why do you thunk restaurant food tastes so good?
Browned butter tomato sauce is absolutely delicious.
It is surprisingly good. Personally we dice the onions and leave them in, and make sure to use San Marzano tomatoes if you can, but the recipe is solid regardless.
1 Medium onion, a mother fucking PINCH of salt… And 5, unholy, table spoons of butter.
I’m not even sure Olive Garden would serve this.
OP said fresh tomatoes, not canned.
Still works. Figure out how to peel them (easy way is to toss in boiling water for a few seconds+), dice them up, then use the recipe.
Sure but if OP knew that they wouldn’t have asked. Also it works better if you score an x before dunking them in the boiling water for 30 seconds
Even better if you just use a blow torch and paper towel. Why use all the energy to boil water you’re likely going to toss, to reboil more water for your pasta.
I figured you could use the water for the pasta too. What’s the worst that happens, it has some tomato in it?
Um, I don’t have a blowtorch and I’d hesitate to use it on a paper towel unless as kindling, but tell me this method in a little more detail.
Also I haven’t had pasta in a year or more but I do love a good tomato-based sauce for my stupid cauliflower, or just to eat by itself.
I saw a news show where they just mushed up tomatoes and threw in an italian seasoning mix to taste.
Adding to the other commenters’ fantastic explanations, some minor tips:
Spices: basil, oregano, a quarter handful of bay leaves, thyme. Cover the whole pot with a generous layer of each, then stir in. If it gets too acidic, add a tiny dash of sugar. Beyond that is chef’s creativity, make it your own.
Time: A decent sauce is 3ish hours. Great sauces are all-day sauces. The best sauces are all-day sauces that are re-simmered for half an hour or so the next day.
Extra: Homemade sauce stores really well. Toss leftovers in a container in the freezer. Will last you a couple months at least.
Oh, right. Definitely a bay leaf or two.
Remove the bay leaf before eating
Anchovies are the secret ingredient to make it savory and delicious. Add one or two to your sauté at the beginning. The sauce will be way better and won’t taste like fish
Second this. Pasta sauces I make from fresh tomatoes are usually bland unless I add anchovies or anchovy paste.
I’ve never made a tomato sauce specifically, but ime with sauces - water is the enemy in the final product. So be sure to cook it a lot to get enough water out to make it nicely thick
Very first result from a basic search: all recipes…com
For just about any basic, check with America’s Test Kitchen
Their cookbook is $20 all day long, and is packed with tons of foundational information and well-tested recipes.
Every beginning cook should have it.
Lots of great options have been offered to you already.
When I look for a recipe, I use noai.DuckDuckGo.com and add food network at the end of the search. It’s usually Alton Brown stuff that comes up.
