Marcella Hazan's Famous Tomato Sauce Is the Only One I'll Ever Make.

[elleng]

((Not really, not ME! Misplaced my recipe years ago.))

No need to peel or core your tomatoes. In fact, this tomato sauce requires zero cooking skills and just three basic ingredients.

The recipe comes from legendary cookbook author and Italian cooking expert Marcella Hazan. Tomatoes, a sweet yellow onion, and butter are cooked low and slow, yielding a sauce that's shockingly easy to make and so delicious.

I'm a busy mom who is never without jars of store-bought tomato sauce in my pantry, and this is the only homemade version I'll make from scratch. Not only does it taste heavenly, the recipe has so much going for it. It dirties just one pot and calls for three budget-friendly ingredients. The sauce is easy to double or triple to meal plan or feed a crowd. It requires zero cooking skills—just throw the ingredients in a pot and let them simmer. I've made this tomato sauce so many times that I have it memorized.

The original recipe calls for 2 cups of canned tomatoes (or blanched, peeled, and chopped tomatoes) simmered with a halved yellow onion, 5 tablespoons of butter, and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt for about 1 hour. The tomatoes are smashed as they cook and the onions are removed and discarded at the end. (Take a look at this amazing story and illustration about Hazan in the New York Times.)

It’s delicious as written, but over the 20 years I’ve been making it, I’ve simplified the recipe even more. My way cuts the prep time to zero, doesn’t waste the onions, and creates a smooth sauce that clings to spaghetti like two people in love.

I place six large tomatoes (about 2 pounds), a yellow onion peeled and cut in half, and 5 tablespoons of salted butter in a pot. Because peeling and coring tomatoes is annoying, I don’t and it’s so good all the same. And if the tomatoes are frozen, I don't defrost them either as you can see in the image below. If using unsalted butter, I add 1 teaspoon kosher salt.

Every time I've made this tomato sauce, I've thought: Maybe I should add garlic, basil, black pepper, or a little pinch of crushed red pepper flakes. And when I do, I regret it afterward. This recipe is best with just the ingredients it calls for. The sweet onions and the fat from the butter are simply a magical match for the tomatoes.'>>>

https://www.simplyrecipes.com/marcella-hazan-tomato-sauce-7962977?

[jmbar2]

1. Ok, this looks good...

Questions: When you use the whole tomato method, do the skins break up when you blend at the end, or do you fish them out? Also, does the finished product freeze well?

Thanks for your notes on the recipe!

[usonian]

2. Hi, Ellen. About recipes:

Most on the web are freely available, but encased in scads of popup's, subscription nags, affiliate links and of course, long, drawn out tales of how to make the recipe, as if we don't know a spoon from a dishwasher. And life stories.

They really are clickbait.

FWIW, I bought hard copies of many of Marcella Hazan's ( not Shazam's, idiot autocorrect wants to say) cookbooks. (used) Great stuff.

I personally use Paprika App (not free, and this is not a plug ) and stick with the old version 2, because the new version 3 costs an awful lot for the desktop version, and they synch with each other, mobile and desktop.

That said, there was a website that cleared out all the ads and clutter: Recipeasly, but the bloggers needed the ads and affiliate links preserved, so they badgered it off the net.

There are extensions for chrome and Firefox that claim to cut the clutter. I have not tried them, but am passing them along.

Recipe filter for Firefox.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-CA/firefox/addon/recipe-filter/

Recipe filter for chrome.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/recipe-filter/ahlcdjbkdaegmljnnncfnhiioiadakae

Should work with Opera Browser.

[Warpy]

3. Best way to peel and core tomatoes

is to slice them crosswise, squeeze out all the seeds, and then grate the flesh into your pan. The skin tends to stay behind as the flesh goes through the holes. It's so much easier than blanching and peeling.It's super fast and easy.

This is if you've got a garden and have real tomatoes instead of those pink, tasteless golf balls in the supermarket. The only alternative to those things is canned tomatoes, which are almost as good as fresh since they're decent varieties, picked ripe.

[Vinca]

4. That's a great tip! Never heard it before. We're drowning in ripe tomatoes from the garden.

[Warpy]

5. Oh, goody! Time for some crock pot ketchup

which is always going to be better than that vinegary red glop from the store.