"tomato sauce" news and stories

Looking for an authentic Italian tomato sauce? Try this Tuscan Tomato Sauce recipe from Kitchen Daily expert Marco Canora. Yes, it takes at least two hours to cook, but only about 10 minutes of active preparation, so you can get it started and then walk away. The sauce gets deep flavor from a soffrito -- an onion, celery and carrot mixture, minced and cooked in oil. During the long cooking process, sauce takes on a beautiful dark red color. It's a winner in all sorts of Italian dishes, from simple pasta to eggplant parmesan.

Not sure what to do with your hand blender?

We've still got a few months until peak tomato season, but a basic tomato sauce can be made year-round with good-quality canned tomatoes, which are a requirement for any well-stocked pantry.

Ripe summer tomatoes. Photo: The Ewan, Flickr.

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

When I was a kid, the end of the summer brought with it a painful, unpleasant tradition. Every August, when the farmers' market was filled with tomatoes, my parents would buy a few bushels, and the whole family would spend a couple of days blanching, peeling and processing the fruits. Every time, the process resulted in clothing and skin that reeked of tomatoes, fingers that stung and a freezer full of watery tomato sauce that we would defrost throughout the year.

As an adult, I have continued the tradition, although I make my sauce in the fall, when cooking pleasantly warms and perfumes the house, rather than turning it into a sweatbox. I also prefer using canned tomatoes, rather than fresh ones: In addition to sparing my fingers from burns, they produce a sauce that is richer, more flavorful and has a better texture than my parents' marinara. On the other hand, I still use my mom's recipe, which she learned from her Italian godmother, although I add a little bit of red wine vinegar, which gives the sauce more depth. Ultimately, it's a spicy, fennel-accented marinara that freezes well, tastes delicious and is inexpensive to make.

Get the recipe for all-purpose marinara after the jump.

Spaghetti sauce is just about the best way to make fast home-cooked meals for the work week.