Every cook changes their recipes, a little tweak here, a pinch of something new there, and before you know it, you’ve rewritten an entire recipe.
I first committed my tomato sauce recipe to paper about 6 years ago, published it online a couple of years after that, and when this site went up it was one of the first recipes I put here. It’s been tweaked, it’s been pinched and dashed and changed. So here we are with a newer version of a basic tomato sauce.
Ingredients
1 medium shallot diced
4 cloves of garlic diced
4 teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil
4 ounces of low sodium vegetable or chicken broth
2 6 ounce cans of tomato paste
1 28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes (liquid reserved)
2 teaspoons of Herbs de Provence
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons of honey
1 teaspoon white truffle oil
1 teaspoon black truffle oil
1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes in olive oil
1 tablespoon of butter
Optional Salt & Pepper
Equipment: 2 qt sauce pan, stick blender, measuring spoons, etc.
In a two quart sauce pan saute the shallot and garlic in the olive oil until translucent.
Add the broth, the reserved liquid from the tomatoes, and the tomato paste. stir slowly to combine cook for 5 minutes.
Add the peeled tomatoes, stir and add the herbs de Provence, chili flakes, basil, oregano and simmer with lid on for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add the honey & truffle oils, stir to combine, and then blend with a stick blender*
Add the chopped sun dried tomatoes and butter, stir to incorporate and simmer with lid another ten minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add salt and pepper to taste but not more than 1/4 teaspoon each.
*If you don’t have a stick blender you have two options, transfer to a blender or food processor and pulse, or you can add 5 minutes to the cook time and stand there with a wooden spoon breaking up the chunks as much as you can.
Some photos from this recipe are here: Tomato Sauce Revisited on Flickr
