Use fresh tomatoes, but you can make this in the winter using a 28-ounce can of Italian whole tomatoes. The sauce is so good the children will eat it without the pasta. Adapted from “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” by Marcella Hazan.
Ingredients
2 pounds fresh tomatoes, cored and roughly chopped
1 onion, cut in half
3 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Directions
Put tomatoes in a saucepan and add butter, onion and salt and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for 45 minutes. Stir from time to time, mashing any large pieces of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Remove onion before serving. If you desire a super-smooth, seed-free sauce, remove and discard onion and process the cooked sauce through a food mill.
Serve over your favorite pasta.
Wine ideas: If you make this in the summer, with fresh tomatoes, find a light red wine, and stick it in the fridge about 30 minutes before dinner. The tangy red fruit will feel especially refreshing. Good choices are super-simple chiantis or, going local, Cottonwood Cellars’ Lemberger, an Austrian grape that seems to thrive in Colorado. — Tara Q. Thomas
