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Pasta/Tomato/Red Sauce with Dried Herbs and Spices


Nargi

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Tomato Sauce, Red Sauce, Pasta Sauce, Marinara, Gravy (if you're super Sicilian), whatever you want to call it, I often find myself with nothing but canned tomato sauce (sometimes the odd can of whole/diced tomatoes or paste) and dried herbs.

I can make some really stellar sauces with fresh ingredients (My marinara has like 5 ingredients and it's ridiculously good), but I'm trying to figure out an acceptable alternative when I'm broke and/or lazy.

I'm looking for variations with dried herbs and spices, possibly even up to the point of nothing fresh.

And before I get the onslaught of "that's culinary blasphemy!" and the like, please note that I am an actual working chef and I do know the difference between "pasta sauce" and marinara" etc., but in general I really only use dried herbs (oregano, specifically) when making pizza sauce and I just want to find something I can make and stash in the fridge or freezer to have on hand when I get hungry and either don't want to spend a lot of time preparing anything or just don't have the ingredients in the house.

Just for the record, I tend to stick to a pretty much tomato, onion and garlic (generally just seasoned with salt, pepper and fresh basil) based sauce, but I welcome the addition of mire poix and carrots and sugar and all that jazz. Not looking for a culinary masterpiece here. Not looking for anything "authentic". Just something good.

Thanks in advance.

Edit: On a side note, I make a pretty common sauce in terms of consistency and flavor profiles, but when I was young, my grandfather and father (both Sicilian), made a very thin sauce, probably just with tomato sauce (no whole/diced/puree, etc.) and the only other ingredient I remember is bay leaf, for some reason. I've tried looking for something similar but to no avail. Any help in this area would be appreciated as well. Thanks.

I've never eaten a Hot Pocket and thought "I'm glad I ate that."

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My best advice: Forget all the herbs and spices and multi-stage preparation. You want a brilliant tomato sauce that is inexpensive and mind-blowingly delicious? Get a can of high-quality tomatoes, an onion, and a nice big lump of butter. Skin the onion and cut it in half. Crush or mill the tomatoes to whatever consistency you would like. Put the onion, butter, tomato and some salt into a cold saucepan. Turn the heat on low. Allow the sauce to come up to a gentle simmer over around 20 minutes, by which time the butter will emulsify into the sauce and the onion will have contributed its flavor. Discard the onion and use the sweet, tomatoey sauce. Add a little crushed red pepper or some minced fresh parsley off the heat, if you like. But nothing further is necessary.

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My best advice:  Forget all the herbs and spices and multi-stage preparation.  You want a brilliant tomato sauce that is inexpensive and mind-blowingly delicious?  Get a can of high-quality tomatoes, an onion, and a nice big lump of butter.  Skin the onion and cut it in half.  Crush or mill the tomatoes to whatever consistency you would like.  Put the onion, butter, tomato and some salt into a cold saucepan.  Turn the heat on low.  Allow the sauce to come up to a gentle simmer over around 20 minutes, by which time the butter will emulsify into the sauce and the onion will have contributed its flavor.  Discard the onion and use the sweet, tomatoey sauce.  Add a little crushed red pepper or some minced fresh parsley off the heat, if you like.  But nothing further is necessary.

Sam's got it right as usual.

This sauce has a permanent place in my repertoire. It's amazing.

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My best advice:  Forget all the herbs and spices and multi-stage preparation.  You want a brilliant tomato sauce that is inexpensive and mind-blowingly delicious?  Get a can of high-quality tomatoes, an onion, and a nice big lump of butter.  Skin the onion and cut it in half.  Crush or mill the tomatoes to whatever consistency you would like.  Put the onion, butter, tomato and some salt into a cold saucepan.  Turn the heat on low.  Allow the sauce to come up to a gentle simmer over around 20 minutes, by which time the butter will emulsify into the sauce and the onion will have contributed its flavor.  Discard the onion and use the sweet, tomatoey sauce.  Add a little crushed red pepper or some minced fresh parsley off the heat, if you like.  But nothing further is necessary.

I typically use the same ingredients other than olive oil instead of butter unless I'm making a dish from the north, and I like how it tastes. However, the process you're describing is so simple and makes so much sense I'm going to have to adopt it from now on.

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I have done side-by-side comparisons making this sauce using butter in one and olive oil in the other. There was no comparison. The butter version was lightyears better. The olive oil version, in fact, actually wasn't all that good. All of which is to say that butter is crucial to this sauce.

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Just about anything. I've used it with penne and spaghetti (usually with crushed red pepper and parsley). I've used it with fresh pasta (where the inclusion of butter makes it work much better than oil-based tomato sauces). And it's my go-to sauce for gnocchi.

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All of which is to say that butter is crucial to this sauce.

I couldn't agree more: I've never done a side-by-side comparison, but I've made it both ways and there is no question. The butter works so beautifully with the tomatoes, in a way the olive oil simply can't match.

All of this is to say: it's not "culinary blasphemy" to want to make a sauce with simple pantry staples, and you can in fact end up with one of the all-time great pasta sauces.

Chris Hennes
Director of Operations
chennes@egullet.org

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... it's not "culinary blasphemy" to want to make a sauce with simple pantry staples, and you can in fact end up with one of the all-time great pasta sauces.
Indeed, it is the measure of the finest home, country, provincial and even haute plates. :wub:

eGullet member #80.

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The brand of tomatoes makes a difference too. Not all Italian plum tomatoes are created equal. Some brands tend to taste brighter and have better texture than others. Some are stringy and too acidic and taste metallic to me. Lousy tomatoes can be unforgiving if you are using very few ingredients and only cooking briefly.

I agree about using butter--it's yummy. And in summer when great fresh tomatoes are available a sauce of uncooked tomatoes with a little butter is out of this world.

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I've used it with fresh pasta (where the inclusion of butter makes it work much better than oil-based tomato sauces).

After years of mixing fresh pasta with tomato-bases sauces, latetly I've been eating the stuffed fresh pasta in bianco and the non-stuffed with other sauces. I'm thinking of trying your receipe with pappardelle and chunks of braised chuck for a light ragu. It should also match polenta very well.

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My favorite quick recipe is Linda Carucci's 20-Minute Tomato Sauce. It's remarkably tasty. I usually start with pureed, chopped, or diced canned tomatoes to save time. The recipe is available here on Googlebooks (page 115):

http://books.google.com/books?id=nc0OBABTH...num=6#PPA115,M1

If you want a recipe of pantry staples only, no fresh herbs, here's a recipe from Papa Andrea's Sicilian Table by Vincent Schiavelli. I haven't tried this recipe myself. (On page 39):

http://books.google.com/books?id=Zt24M3F5P...rinara#PPA39,M1

The book itself is a fun read--some wonderful family stories.

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My best advice:  Forget all the herbs and spices and multi-stage preparation.  You want a brilliant tomato sauce that is inexpensive and mind-blowingly delicious?  Get a can of high-quality tomatoes, an onion, and a nice big lump of butter.  Skin the onion and cut it in half.  Crush or mill the tomatoes to whatever consistency you would like.  Put the onion, butter, tomato and some salt into a cold saucepan.  Turn the heat on low.  Allow the sauce to come up to a gentle simmer over around 20 minutes, by which time the butter will emulsify into the sauce and the onion will have contributed its flavor.  Discard the onion and use the sweet, tomatoey sauce.  Add a little crushed red pepper or some minced fresh parsley off the heat, if you like.  But nothing further is necessary.

hmm, well, in all honesty, nothing like this has ever crossed my mind, but everyone seems to be in agreement that it's good stuff, so methinks i'll have to try it soon. thanks for the quick reply.

I've never eaten a Hot Pocket and thought "I'm glad I ate that."

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Try it with the best canned tomatoes in your budget, and I think you will be well satisfied.

This is a recipe and technique that I think is in one of the Marcella Hazan books. But I was first introduced to it by my friend and ace cook Joe Bavuso, so to me it has always been "salsa alla Bavusiana."

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A quick question here, do you need to pass the tomatoes in a mill to get a fine texture in order to achieve a better emulsion with the butter? Would chopping the tomatoes on a cutting board work as well? I do have a food mill but I generally like a bit of texture in my tomato sauce.

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Try it with the best canned tomatoes in your budget, and I think you will be well satisfied.

This is a recipe and technique that I think is in one of the Marcella Hazan books.  But I was first introduced to it by my friend and ace cook Joe Bavuso, so to me it has always been "salsa alla Bavusiana."

That would be correct, it is basically her method. I had never heard of the woman until a few months ago when I got the urge to start making my own sauce and jumped on here and the internet for some references. Turns out she basically invented Italian cooking (hyperbole, of course). Her recipe specifically calls for San Marzano tomatoes, which in her opinion are the best for this sauce.

I went into this process highly skeptical since I had this preconception that making a great sauce involved some sort of Italian alchemy that my Irish blood would never understand. I was absolutely dumbfounded how simple and delicious this sauce turned out. I added garlic and basil to mine since I'm such a rebel.

I would kill everyone in this room for a drop of sweet beer...

Homer Simpson

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A quick question here, do you need to pass the tomatoes in a mill to get a fine texture in order to achieve a better emulsion with the butter? Would chopping the tomatoes on a cutting board work as well? I do have a food mill but I generally like a bit of texture in my tomato sauce.

Do it however you like. You can hand-crush the tomatoes to whatever texture you like, you can pass them through the coarse die on a food mill (what I usually do) or you can put them in there whole and crush them with a fork or potato masher after they're cooked.

I added garlic and basil to mine since I'm such a rebel.

Honestly, to me it is the simplicity of this sauce -- and particularly the absence of garlic -- that makes it so special.

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Blend it smooth, thin it out with a little water or white wine, maybe swirl in the merest whisper of cream and you've got yourself a pretty nice bowl of tomato soup.

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I have long shared the goal Nargi described here!

I learned about Samuel Lloyd Kinsey's tomato sauce only here

so have yet to try it!

Here is what I do toward the goal Nargi described:

Ingredients:

1/2 C virgin olive oil

2 pounds coarsely diced yellow globe onion

1/2 C minced fresh garlic, Spice World

1 C Italian Chianti wine, own secret stash!

3/4 C dry parsley, Tone's

1/4 C dry oregano, Tone's

1/4 C dry basil, Tone's

1/4 C dry rosemary leaves, from own garden two years ago

5 bay leaves, Tone's

1 T table salt

50 twists of pepper mill, maybe 2 t of freshly, coarsely

ground black pepper

1 6 pound 6 ounce can of Whole Tomatoes, Contradina

2 cans, 28 ounces per can, crushed tomatoes, Tuttorosso

6 ounce can of tomato paste, Contradina

To handle the whole tomatoes:

Place a colander in 3 a quart stainless steel bowl. Dump can

contents into colander. Use a table knife and a serving fork

to cut the tomatoes. Let the cut tomatoes drain into the

bowl.

On a cutting board, coarsely dice the tomatoes.

Rest of Steps:

In an 8 quart stainless steel pot with a heavy aluminum bottom

and a cover,

cook onions and olive oil over medium-low heat until onions

softened, translucent, and reduced and a fond has started to

form, about one hour. Add garlic, mix, and heat through.

Add tomato paste, mash and mix, and cook with stirring to form

a light fond.

Add wine, dissolve fond, and reduce until raw wine aroma is

gone.

Add dry herbs and mix. Add diced tomatoes and their liquid

and mix. Add crushed tomatoes and mix.

Bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer over low heat, to about

200 F, for about three hours.

Let cool covered at room temperature and then refrigerate

covered.

Makes about 6.5 quarts that doesn't last very long in my

refrigerator.

Notes:

The 1/2 C of olive oil is enough to have its flavor slightly

noticeable and to affect slightly mouth feel in the final

sauce and is good for the applications I have in mind (see two

here below), but for most uses with pasta 1/3 C might be

better. I used 1/3 C for years and only recently converted to

1/2 C. The 1/3 C makes the olive oil significantly less

noticeable in the final sauce.

Yes, Virginia, I actually do fairly accurately measure the

ingredients! No, I do NOT just pour or dump as is nearly

universal for the TV chefs!

I used 1/4 C of garlic for years and only recently converted

to 1/2 C and am surprised that it is not too much.

I am similarly surprised that the 2 pounds of onions are not

too much: By the time the onions are soft and forming a fond,

the volume is significantly reduced and onion pieces, even

with the coarse dicing, are hardly visible or noticeable in

the final sauce.

The herb and garlic flavors are not nearly as strong as might

expect. Fresh herbs would likely give better flavor and,

indeed, as I type my herb garden is growing basil, oregano,

and flat leaf parsley!

Am developing a fond mostly from suggestions of others. If

develop a lot of fond, then get a sauce that is too dark in

color and flavor. With no more than a little fond and only

about 3 hours of simmering at about 200 F, get a nicer color

and some nice, bright flavors.

My two uses of the sauce so far:

First Use:

In a 2 quart Pyrex casserole dish, add

1 C loosely frozen, ground beef, sauteed with olive oil,

onion, garlic, black pepper, and drained

1 C loosely frozen, shredded, whole milk Mozzarella cheese

2 cans, 15 ounces per can, of Chef Boyardee Beef Ravioli

(right! 'Semi-home made'!)

2 C of tomato sauce above

Cover. Heat in microwave at 100% power for 12 minutes.

Rotate 1/2 turn and heat for 10 minutes.

Top with about 5 ounces of freshly grated Pecorino Romano

cheese. Don't have to have the hardest version available, and

don't really want the saltiest version available.

Serve with a glass of the Chianti.

It makes the best fast, weekday dinner at home I know of!

Second Use:

about 3 pounds two ounces (final weight as added to the pot)

of large, white mushrooms, washed, dried, and halved

about 2 pounds 10 ounces (final weight, as added to the pot)

of relatively large green pepper chunks

about 2.5 pounds of skinless, boneless chicken thigh pieces

olive oil

In a 5 quart stainless steel pot, with a heavy aluminum bottom

and a cover, with bottom coated with olive oil, saute the

mushrooms, green pepper pieces, and chicken separately,

combine, cover with tomato sauce, cover pot, and simmer until

chicken very tender.

Still working on refining this chicken dish.

Surprised that the weight of the mushrooms and green pepper

pieces is not too much.

Note: It's easy to cook the green pepper pieces so that they

are hardly visible in the final dish and lose nearly all their

flavor. So, don't overcook the green pepper pieces. Maybe

don't even add the green pepper pieces to the chicken until the

chicken is nearly done.

Looking improvements in the tomato sauce and other uses,

especially for fast weekday dinners!

As far as I know, this post meets the eG ethical catechism!

In particular, I have received no "comp" or promise of one,

but neither have I been offered!

What would be the right food and wine to go with

R. Strauss's 'Ein Heldenleben'?

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The butter, onion and good tomato sauce is my favorite for gnocchi.  Takes that basic comfort food to a new level of comfort.

I've used what I believe is the Marcella Hazan recipe as a pizza sauce as well. You can reduce it down a bit, but it's a thinner more delicate sauce than is ordinarily used on pizza, so requires a light touch. Good, though!

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I have long shared the goal Nargi described here!

I learned about Samuel Lloyd Kinsey's tomato sauce only here

so have yet to try it!

Here is what I do toward the goal Nargi described:

Ah yes, the classic "simple" project sauce. A mere 14 ingredient, nine step , three and a half hours preparation-and-cooking tomato sauce. :wink:

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Saute a couple (or more) chopped onion in a good hunk of butter in a big saucepan or a dutch oven, until limp-ish. Pour over a jar of a slightly sweet style of ready made sauce with mushrooms (I like Prego), a can (or more) of diced/ chopped/ crushed/ whole tomatoes (if using whole, squash with fingers), fresh minced or pressed garlic to taste, more mushrooms if you want and salt and pepper to taste. Add lots of dried tarragon and about a half teaspoon of sugar, stir well, cover and let simmer for about an hour more or less. Pot should be covered but not tightly during simmering, so some of the juices will cook down. Leave covered pot on the stove while you and your s/o go the the bar/club/library/dog park/gym/wherever. When you get home, turn the heat on low under the sauce, add about a tablespoon of dried basil, put the water on to boil for the pasta and heat the oven up for the garlic bread you made earlier. If the sauce seems too thin when it's first cooking, dump in a small tin of tomato paste. HTH!

"Commit random acts of senseless kindness"

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I have long shared the goal Nargi described here!

I learned about Samuel Lloyd Kinsey's tomato sauce only here

so have yet to try it!

Here is what I do toward the goal Nargi described:

Ah yes, the classic "simple" project sauce. A mere 14 ingredient, nine step , three and a half hours preparation-and-cooking tomato sauce. :wink:

Gee, some of the best information I have gotten on eG was on caramelization in

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1634164

by, hmm, let's see, user "slkinsey". Hmm ...!

Yup, as referenced, I did then get:

Robert L. Wolke, 'What Einstein Told His Cook.' ISBN 978-0-393-32942-1, W. W. Norton, New York, 2002.

There were several more good comments in thread:

"Caramelizing Tomato Paste, Enhancing Italian Red Sauces"

at

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...4entry1638564

by user "slkinsey".

But the "three and a half hours preparation-and-cooking" is not quite correct: I cooked the onions for about an hour before I even started the three hour period of the sauce! There was 'prep' time before that and cleanup time afterward!

E.g., for the prep time, in my last batch, I hauled a half full 10 pound bag of onions from the cool basement and discovered that this far into spring the basement has not been quite cool enough: After peeling and halving the onions looking for the coveted 2 pounds, I had a sink full of half rotten onion chunks and nothing for the sauce! So, empty out the sink, make a large deposit on the compost pile, clean up the mess, and start over with a fresh 10 pound bag of onions. Yup -- extended the prep time!

Gotta make 1/2 C of minced garlic -- takes more than 10 seconds to do that!

But, as Nargi wanted, my recipe has a lot of "dried herbs"!

For the first version of my recipe, I just improvised. Since then I adjusted iteratively. I'm continuing to refine: I'm still experimenting with 'caramelizing' the tomato paste. May add anchovies, capers, and sugar. And I may try a brown chicken stock demi-glace again. I like the sauce so far, but I doubt that it will compete with anything by a cook who really knows what they are doing with Italian red sauce.

So, that would be four more ingredients for a total of, let's see, 14 + 4 = 18. Maybe that's a record?

What would be the right food and wine to go with

R. Strauss's 'Ein Heldenleben'?

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