It is really so simple to make your own tomato sauce, and it’s so much tastier then store-bought tomato sauce in a jar! It’s economical too, when you buy your ingredients as you see them on sale, and keep them on hand in your pantry.
Having the ingredients on hand means you can whip up a tomato sauce anytime you think of it. It can be quick and easy as a fresh tasting one skillet sauce to use with cooked vegetables and chicken for a light meal. Or it might be a slowly simmered tomato sauce chock full of homemade meatballs, sweet or hot Italian sausages, chunks of boneless pork loin or homemade braciole.
Either way, next time you’re home on a chilly or rainy weekend, make your own tasty tomato sauce. your boyfriend or hubby, and even the kids will just love it! And they’ll love YOU for making it!
Buying The Staples to Make Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce
I have made tomato sauce from fresh-from-my-garden plum tomatoes (the Roma variety.) Perhaps I may have derived a kind of Martha Stewart-like sense of accomplishment from having peeled and ground my own garden grown tomatoes for my sauce. But really, I have found it’s just not worth the extra work and bother to EVER do that again. In the end, sauce made this way tastes no different from a sauce using canned tomatoes! It also requires A LOT of tomatoes to make an average size sauce. The basic process is this: first, you must plunge the whole tomato into boiling hot water for a few seconds to be able to peel off the skin; then remove the seeds of each tomato as much as you can before processing them to a ground up consistency. What a pain in the neck! What a mess it makes, too!
Instead, buy canned tomatoes. Every so often you’ll see canned ground peeled tomatoes on sale in the supermarket, and this is the time to stock up. The usual sale price is about a dollar for a 28 ounce can, which is the size you need. The best price I’ve paid is 79 cents a can, but I haven’t seen that for a while. Normally, the price per can is about $1.50 or so.
Buy two to four cans at least; four cans will make 4 smaller sauces approximately the size of those “jar” sauces, or 2 large sauces. A large sauce is better if you want to add meat to it.
Be sure to only buy good brands of tomatoes, because there IS a difference in taste, although it’s not necessary to try to find imported Italian brands such as San Marzano. But making your tomato sauce with store brand tomatoes will just ruin it, in my humble opinion, no matter how you try to jazz it up with garlic and onion and spices; the bland taste will still come through. At least, buy brands of ground peeled tomatoes such as Pastene or Cento, in the 28 ounce size. Sometimes they’ll have an added basil variety; if you see that, buy it, it’ll only add to the flavor.
Remember, you want to buy only ground peeled tomatoes, not crushed or whole, because then you’ll have to either process them in a food processor or in a blender to reduce them down to ground (unless your family likes chunky style tomatoes-mine doesn’t) and that’s too much work. (This is supposed to be easy!)
Next you need cans of tomato paste. Again, stock up when you see brands like Hunts, Cento or Contadina on sale. I usually buy the six ounce size, probably because that’s what my mother used to buy. But if the larger size cans are on sale, buy them; you can just adjust the recipe. Again, you may see an onion or garlic added variety; go ahead and buy them if you want. It really doesn’t matter because you’ll add flavorings and spices to this recipe anyway. Buy at least 4 cans of six ounce size tomato paste; this should give you enough on hand for two pots of tomato sauce.
Buying the Zesty Flavorings for your Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce
You should buy fresh yellow onions and fresh garlic for your tomato sauce. Don’t use dried onion flakes! If you don’t like garlic or onion you don’t have to use them, but they do add delicious flavor.
There is some work involved here though-you’ll have to chop the onions by hand and peel each clove of garlic, then crush it to release the flavor. (This is not hard to do, you simply place a clove of garlic on a cutting board, placing the side of a thick bladed knife atop the clove, then with the heel of your hand give the side of the blade a quick thump. Voila, a crushed clove of garlic! Oh, and to remove the smell of garlic from your fingers, rub them with a wedge of lemon.)
To keep this recipe simple, you can buy a jar of minced garlic to keep in the fridge and use that instead of fresh garlic. (Not quite as good as fresh, though.)
Or buy garlic powder to have on hand in your cupboard and use that, but the sauce won’t be as flavorful.
When deciding how much garlic and onion to use, let your taste be your guide; one large onion for a large sauce consisting of two cans of ground peeled tomatoes and two or three cans of tomato paste is more then enough. One to three cloves of garlic is what I usually use, but adjust the taste according to what your family and you like. If using minced garlic in a jar, use about 1-3 teaspoons, again letting your taste be your guide!
Always use good quality Italian olive oil to saute your onion and garlic in, preferably extra-virgin olive oil (I don’t use anything else!)
If you want meat for your sauce, you’ll also need to buy either hamburg or ground chuck and perhaps also ground pork to mix in with the hamburg (though I don’t) to make meatballs, as well as having grated Parmesan cheese, day old bread and eggs on hand; remember however, that this will be more work and time consuming than a basic tomato sauce.
An easier way to add meat and flavor to your tomato sauce is to buy a package of either sweet or hot Italian sausages, saute them in a frying pan for about 10-15 minutes or till lightly brown, then add them to your pot where they will finish cooking in the simmering tomato sauce.
You can also buy a stick of pepperoni from the deli counter and cut it into one inch slices and add that to your sauce, also.
For parties or holidays, I’ll even buy a boneless pork loin roast, cut it into medium chunks, saute that too, and add that to the sauce to simmer as well.
Preparing homemade tomato sauce with meat makes for a flavorful and rich tomato sauce, and combined with the pasta of your choice, makes enough for a large crowd or to have lots of leftovers to freeze.
How to Make Your Own Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce
For a large sauce:
1. Chop up a medium or large yellow onion, and crush a clove or two (more if you want!) of garlic, but don’t combine them. In a heavy 6 or 8 quart stainless steel stockpot or enameled cast iron dutch oven (never alumanum!) heat up one or two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil; when warm enough, add just the onion to saute on low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. When slightly wilted, add the crushed garlic (or 1 to 2 teaspoons of minced garlic) to the onion to also soften. Just don’t let the onion or especially the garlic get too brown or burn. This will make the garlic, and also your sauce, taste bitter!
2. Add two 28 ounce cans of ground peeled tomatoes and let them cook for a half hour, on low heat. Still watching that the tomatoes, onion or garlic don’t burn, stir occasionally.
(Now, some people like to stop at this point and use this as a light, fresh tasting tomato sauce for pasta or vegetables or chicken; especially good in the summertime! But continue on for the rest of this recipe…
3. Add three cans of tomato paste, PLUS two cans of water for each can of tomato paste used. TIP: After emptying out each can of paste into your pot, fill the emptied can with the water- in this way you get all the paste out.
4. Stir and continue cooking on low heat. Add salt (sea salt if you want) and freshly ground black pepper. Add fresh (or dried) oregano and basil too. The amount used varies according to your individual taste, but approximately one or two teaspoons will suffice. The taste is always stronger when using fresh herbs, so be careful you don’t over do! You can stop here for a meatless sauce, letting the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes more. If you want to add meat to the sauce, now is the time to prepare it.
Meat For Your Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce
In a large bowl, mix two pounds of lean hamburg in a large bowl, with:
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon of pepper
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
approximately 1/2 teaspoon of dried or fresh parsley
1/2 cup of grated Parmesan cheese
6. Add three eggs
7. Wet three slices of day old white bread with just enough water to make them wet but not soggy, and crumble them up. Add this to the bowl, and mix it all up with your (clean!) hands, mixing lightly-don’t over mix.
8. Form meatballs, a little bigger than a golf ball (but NOT quite as big as a tennis ball!)
9. Add about 1/2 inch of olive oil to a heavy skillet, and heat up the oil. When hot, add meatballs and saute, turning them to brown all over. When lightly browned add them to the pot of tomato sauce and let simmer for about two hours.
10. Instead of meatballs, (or in addition to them,) you can also brown Italian sausages, and medium-sized chunks of pork loin, and add them to your simmering pot of tomato sauce to finish cooking. Also, you may want to add slices of pepperoni to the sauce, but don’t brown them, just add them to the pot…if there’s room!
Buon appetito!
