RCP /FoodLetter: Fresh tomato sauce

[Robin Garr]

Fresh tomato sauce

At the risk of tiring readers with yet another celebration of all the great vegetables coming out of our garden this warm summer, we're reveling in a bumper crop of tomatoes over here.

Hoping that you are, too (or at least have access to fresh local tomatoes at farmers' markets), I thought it would be worth revisiting a topic I discussed around this same time five years ago, talking about how to capture a taste of this bounty and save it for enjoyment when winter winds blast.

The secret: Make fresh tomato sauce! As I said in the July 25, 2002 <I>FoodLetter</I>, fresh-made sauce offers delicious richness and fresh flavor that can't be duplicated from a can, and better yet, it's easy to freeze in single-serving portions.

My standard recipe is simple, and subject to endless variation to your taste. (In fact, I've made a few small changes since I last talked about this procedure in print.)

The key, in any case, is <i>not</i> traditional long simmering, but a quick, non-intrusive cooking down that retains the tomatoes' natural fresh flavor. If you decide you want a long-cooked Sicilian-style sauce later, you can always put a ration on the back burner with plenty of garlic and let it simmer for hours and caramelize into Italian-American "gravy." Or use it to make tomato soup, or lasagna, or even a quick pizza topping ... well, you get the idea.

INGREDIENTS: (Makes about 3 quarts or a scant 3 liters)

About 5 pounds (2 kilos) fresh, ripe tomatoes (plum tomatoes such as Romas are best for sauce, but any fresh garden tomato will do)
1 large sweet white or yellow onion
Several sprigs of fresh basil
2 tablespoons (30ml) good olive oil
Sea salt
Black pepper

PROCEDURE:

1. Cut the tomatoes into large chunks and put them in a large non-reactive pan (most experts advise avoiding aluminum to avoid off flavors, although a hard anodized aluminum surface is OK).

2. Peel the onion and cut it into chunks, and put them in with the tomatoes. Add the whole basil sprigs, the olive oil and a bit of salt and pepper. (Be discreet with the seasoning. You can always add more when you use the sauce in recipes, but you can't take it out.)

3. Bring the tomatoes to a boil over high heat, stirring and mashing the tomato pieces occasionally. The natural juice of the tomatoes will provide all the liquid you need. When it boils, reduce heat to a simmer, cover, and cook until the tomatoes are soft but not overcooked. About 30 minutes is plenty. The key to this sauce is freshness and simplicity. If you want to make a sweet, caramelized Italian-American "gravy," you can always put some sauce and a lot of garlic over low heat and simmer it for hours later on.

4. Put the entire contents of a pan through a Foley food mill (an inexpensive and useful accessory that should be available anywhere kitchen supplies are sold). If you don't have a food mill, you can force the sauce through a large strainer, but it's a lot more work. In any case, the point is to separate smooth, flavorful pulp from the tomato skins and seeds, which at this point will have given all their flavor to the sauce.

Use immediately or freeze. It tastes great over hot pasta with nothing added but grated cheese, or of course you can use it as your base in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce.

<B>MATCHING WINE:</B> Your wine match depends on the recipe, of course, but I find that fruity and acidic Italian reds make natural companions with tomatoes and tomato sauce. Chianti with red-sauced spaghetti or pizza is not just a cliche ... in my most recent batch, a simple bowl of spaghetti with a dollop of this sauce and a ration of grated Pecorino Romano cheese made a splendid match with a very modest 2005 Chianti.

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Robin, do you really simmer the sauce for 30 minutes?

As an alternative, have you tried softening the onions, then mixing them with the tomatoes, bringing them to a boil, and then simmer for five minutes or so?

The Chef suggested this technique in a thread awhile back, and I find that the tomato sauce is much fresher with less simmering.

Regards, Bob

[Robin Garr]

Robin, do you really simmer the sauce for 30 minutes?

As an alternative, have you tried softening the onions, then mixing them with the tomatoes, bringing them to a boil, and then simmer for five minutes or so?

The Chef suggested this technique in a thread awhile back, and I find that the tomato sauce is much fresher with less simmering.

I'm sure that would work, Bob. In my experience over many years, though, this procedure seems to work the best for me in making a good basic tomato sauce. Thinking aloud, it seems to me that there's some balance between cooking too long, which eventually yields a caramelized "gravy" (not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's a distinct style that, as noted, can always be achieved later using this basic sauce as a starting point); and cooking very short, which does retain a fresh (or even raw-tomato) flavor but doesn't fully extract the flavor and intensity from the fruit.

So, about a half-hour (timing isn't critical), at a <i>low, gentle</i> simmer, works out as the best compromise for me.

"So, about a half-hour (timing isn't critical), at a low, gentle simmer, works out as the best compromise for me."

Time for an experiment, Robin. With such good supplies of New Jersey tomatoes, I'll make up a batch of six pints, and remove a pint sample from the pot at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 minutes.

The great thing is that I'm sure they'll all taste pretty good.

Thanks -- I bow to your much greater experience.

Thanks, Bob

Bob, I'll be curious to see what you come up with. My experience agrees with yours- I either cook tomatoes a lot less or a lot more, but there's nothing like a more rigorous experiment to see if I'm full of it or not.

For fresh garden tomato sauce I am in the "quickie" camp. I do sweat or quickly brown some onions, add garlic for a few seconds then the chopped tomatoes and basil and parsley but I cook only until they release their juices and some of the evoo floats. I leave it chunky with texture.

Quick favors the acidic profile, long concentrates the sweet. To me, you never get the quick profile from canned tomatoes and the tinniness of canned is overcome by the long slow simmer when you no longer have garden fresh.

[Jenise]

Chef Roberto Donna (Gallo's, Washington DC) taught me yet another method. The tomatoes are peeled and seeded, pureed, and then cooked at a low simmer for about 15 minutes. He was adamnant--never boil. The result is something unmistakeably fresh, and yet not raw in any way.

[Robin Garr]

Chef Roberto Donna (Gallo's, Washington DC) taught me yet another method. The tomatoes are peeled and seeded, pureed, and then cooked at a low simmer for about 15 minutes. He was adamnant--never boil. The result is something unmistakeably fresh, and yet not raw in any way.

This is very close to what I do, although I called for a 30-minute simmer. I hope it's clear from the narrative that when I talk about bringing the tomatoes TO a boil, I mean STOP RIGHT THERE and simmer. Don't let it boil hard, no way, no how. Just bring it up to a simmer fast, then reduce heat to a gentle occasional pop, for just the reasons you describe above.

To me, the gentle slow simmer for a moderate length of time, whether it's 15, 30 or 45, accomplishes a great compromise: You lose the raw taste, get a lot of intensity and extracted flavor, but stop short of caramelization or cooked/stewed tomato flavors.

That's pretty close to my method- I peel and seed, chop into cubes, cook down with olive oil and garlic, herb it appropriately, then use a weird arc-shaped chopper tool (like a multi-bladed mezzaluna) to get the final texture I want. Very rustic and easy.

I've done it closer to Robin's way, too, though using a chinoise and a silicone spatula (major pain in the ass). That gives a more refined result.

I don't do this often, but occasionally I crave a more intense flavor and oven-drying the tomatoes before I fix the sauce works.

Halve the romas and place them cut side up on a baking sheet. I brush with a little olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put in a 200ºF oven all day. For appetizers (on top of bread, etc.) I'll leave them in about 6 hours. For a sauce, I'll leave them in around 8 hours (and cut back on the oil, salt & pepper).

The preparation is easy after this point since you don't need to simmer the tomatoes but simply combine everything else you want in the sauce. Just one of many options, but I love the intensity this yields.