How to: Italian Tomato Sauce from Scratch

    Hey guys! Today, I'm gonna be sharing with you guys something very special to me: MY FAMILY'S TOMATO SAUCE RECIPE. This recipe is a true Italian classic that my family and I make every week. We tend to make it in very large batches on the weekend, so we can take out time making the sauce and we then have enough sauce to last us that week. This sauce is made completely from scratch (the Italian way), but if you don't have enough time or want to skip some steps I'll let you know how below! Ok let's get started!



YOU ARE GOING TO NEED:

Tomatoes

• 6-7 pounds of ripe plum tomatoes
• A whole onion (I prefer white but red is great too)
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Red wine (any)
• Fresh basil
• Fresh oregano
• A cayenne pepper (fresh or dried)
• Olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Oregano

Basil

Cayenne

    First, you must put all your plum tomatoes in a large pot and fill with water. You want to bring the tomatoes to a soft boil so they are softened and ready to be strained. This should be done about 30 minutes in advance. Once the tomatoes are ready, dice your onion and cook them in a large saucepan with some olive oil at a medium-low heat. While your onions are cooking, strain your cooked tomatoes using a tomato strainer (found in most convenience and appliance stores).

This is pretty much what my strainer looks like!

You are going to get excess water in with your tomatoes, but thats fine because it is going to be cooked out later! Throw away your left-over dry tomato skins. Once you have your tomatoes all ready, peel and dice your garlic cloves and put them in the saucepan with your onions (which should be soft so they aren't crunchy if you bite into them; takes about 10-15 minutes to cook down). After a couple of minutes, cut a cayenne pepper and rip up a couple leaves of fresh basil and oregano, and throw them into the saucepan. I like to season at every step, so I add a little bit of salt and pepper at this point. After about 3 minutes, I then add a generous amount of red wine - just enough to cover all the ingredients. I then give this another 5 minutes to simmer together at medium-low heat so all the flavours can blend together, soak up the rich wine taste, and soften a bit. And don't worry, the alcohol of the wine is going to be burned off after this stage! Next, I add the strained tomato mixture into the saucepan. I usually let everything cook together for about an hour, or until all the excess water has been cooked out and the sauce has the perfect consistency. The key to the perfect sauce is constant stirring about every 5 minutes so none of the ingredients settles at the bottom and burns. Roundabout an hour later, your perfect sauce is done! I like to do a final seasoning at the end, and also add some spice (because I adore spicy food!), but just do whatever tastes right to you! Now all that is left to do is to add to pasta or whatever dish you like, and serve!

Your beautiful finished product!

If you want to cut a few corners, or just don't have the time to do this entire process, here are a couple of tips. Instead of straining all the tomatoes yourself (which is quite hard work!), you can buy strained tomatoes or passato at the market. I have also been told that some supermarkets even have pre-chopped veggies for you, so you can just grab those and throw it into a pan with a jar of strained tomatoes!

Passato di Pomodoro

Note: This recipe does make a large portion of sauce so adjust accordingly!

Well I wish you all the best of luck with making this yummy sauce and hope its a recipe you'll grow to love! Until next time!! :)
                                                xx,
                                                            Vivian