Tomato Sauce Base (not ketchup!)
Introduction
This is very simple, what the Italians know as a sofrito. The best base for a pizza is just plain roma tomatoes with the pips squeezed out and then simmered with salt and pepper until they can be crushed into a smoothish sauce, but this is good too!
Ingredients
- 1 400g can of whole Italian tomatoes. Squeeze the pips out and then cut them up smallish. Don't blend/process them, you break open the pips and they make the sauce bitter.
- 1 medium onion, finely sliced
- 2 (or more) cloves of garlic peeled and crushed.
- Fresh or dried basil - torn up. You can use oregano or thyme or whatever herbs you like.
1/2 glass of nice red wine - if you want.
- 3 tbs olive oil - use as much olive oil as you dare!
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
Directions
Put the oil in a heavy pan over medium heat, add the onions and saute very gently (for as much as 20 minutes)until golden brown. Add the tomatoes, the red wine, the basil and the garlic and simmer for an hour or more - until the tomatoes have broken down and are soft. Season. Add water if it gets too thick.
You can blend it carefully until smooth if you want, but be careful not to do it for too long or it ends up a weird orange colour. It's the same with tomato soup.
It's best made 24 hours or more ahead. It freezes well.
Variations
Source: Moi.
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