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Tomato Sauce

I make tomato sauce often. I make a batch to use that same night, and freeze what is left over to pull out and cook with when I want to throw something together quickly, like a grilled pizza or a pasta. A ricer or food mill is an inexpensive piece of kitchen equipment and there are many sizes. This is the best way to puree this sauce.

Ingredients

Makes about 3 1/2 cups

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 Fresno chile, minced, or 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 (28-ounce) can whole tomatoes, such as San Marzano, with half of the juice strained out, and crushed with your fingers
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  1. Add the olive oil to a large saucepan over high heat; decrease the heat to medium. Add the onion and cook for 1 minute, stirring often, until the onion begins to soften. Add the garlic, oregano, and chile, and stir to mix. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, a large pinch of salt, and a few cranks of pepper. Decrease the heat to medium-low and cook for about 8 to 10 minutes. Run the tomato sauce through a ricer, otherwise known as a food mill, break up the tomatoes with a few pulses of an immersion blender, or use as is. Taste and season with more salt and pepper, if needed.

Reprinted with permission fromCooking off the Clock: Recipes from My Downtimeby Elizabeth Falkner, copyright © 2012. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House, Inc.Elizabeth Falkneris the founding chef and owner of Citizen Cake and Orson in San Francisco and is currently opening a new restaurant in Brooklyn, NY. She was a finalist and runner-up onThe Next Iron Chefin 2011, competed onTop Chef Mastersand has judgedTop Chef MastersandTop Chef. Elizabeth wasBon Appétit's pastry chef of the year in 2006. Her first book,Demolition Desserts,was published in 2007.
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  • Delicious! The only change I made was to make mine from scratch with tomatoes from my garden. We grow the mortgage lifters, very meaty and yum! I make this in large batches and then can it but it takes two days of peeling, seeding and simmering to get it purrrffect. Thank you for the base as my mother's added sugar that mine just didn't need!

    • DragonArtist76

    • Chicagoland, USA

    • 9/5/2012