smooth-enough tomato sauce
I think of myself as a fairly competent cook, but not a very confident one. I use recipes more than half the time and usually think they turn out better than most of what I make up on the fly. So, when I went to make this recipe from Bittman's lackies -- found here, and I wound up with a variation of the first one -- and realized very quickly that it just wasn't working, I got a little nervous. But it went OK and the tomato sauce turned out pretty well. I can't say that this was Worth It in capital letters; the amount of time and attention it takes doesn't seem proportional to the amount of better it is than a jar of Classico. If you find yourself with 6 million pounds of tomatoes and no clue what to do with them, though, I'd recommend it.
Core and chop 50-60 tomatoes. I used the food processor with regular blade on it -- not pureed, because there should still be some small chunks. Drain off as much of the juice as you can.
Saute lots of chopped onion and garlic in a giant pot. Add two or three chopped red peppers and saute until soft. Add the tomatoes and a generous pinch of salt and red pepper.
"Raise the heat so the mixture bubbles off water as soon as it appears. You’re not stewing the tomatoes as much as you’re caramelizing them, so be aggressive here." -- says the Bittman surrogate. This is the place where I completely left the recipe behind -- there was so much water, there was nothing resembling carmelizing going on. So what I did, which sounds ridiculous, is boil it at full heat for about five hours. Stirring once every 10 minutes or so. Really. Still no caramelizing. Feet hurt afterward.
When the sauce has finally thickened, there is still a lot of chopped tomato residue on the bottom of the pot. Stir in a generous splash of balsamic to taste, a little sugar, more salt, more red pepper. Cool for a little while, until it isn't crazily hot.
Use the immersion blender and puree until smooth-ish. There are still small chunks in mine and it's not perfectly smooth, but it's pretty close. Stir in ridiculous amounts of chopped basil and parsley to taste. Find someone to give you a foot rub.
Core and chop 50-60 tomatoes. I used the food processor with regular blade on it -- not pureed, because there should still be some small chunks. Drain off as much of the juice as you can.
Saute lots of chopped onion and garlic in a giant pot. Add two or three chopped red peppers and saute until soft. Add the tomatoes and a generous pinch of salt and red pepper.
"Raise the heat so the mixture bubbles off water as soon as it appears. You’re not stewing the tomatoes as much as you’re caramelizing them, so be aggressive here." -- says the Bittman surrogate. This is the place where I completely left the recipe behind -- there was so much water, there was nothing resembling carmelizing going on. So what I did, which sounds ridiculous, is boil it at full heat for about five hours. Stirring once every 10 minutes or so. Really. Still no caramelizing. Feet hurt afterward.
When the sauce has finally thickened, there is still a lot of chopped tomato residue on the bottom of the pot. Stir in a generous splash of balsamic to taste, a little sugar, more salt, more red pepper. Cool for a little while, until it isn't crazily hot.
Use the immersion blender and puree until smooth-ish. There are still small chunks in mine and it's not perfectly smooth, but it's pretty close. Stir in ridiculous amounts of chopped basil and parsley to taste. Find someone to give you a foot rub.
Comments
this sauce has it all over a jar of Classico - the amount of love & sweat that went into it translates directly into nutritional content. no doubt.