Frankly, I hate tomato sauce almost as much as the thought of drinking drano.

But as far as this tomato sauce goes, this stuff is pretty darn good. I never thought I'd hear myself say that, like ever.

My first thought after tasting it was, "Man, this would make a good tomato soup!...huh?" Was that me I just heard saying that inside my head?

I did try this sauce before and it was ok. I still can't find the perfect D.O.P San Marzanos, but this time I found some San Marzanos, but still they added salt to them and no D.O.P to be found anywhere on the can.

This time, I sweated the onions three times longer than probably necessary, cause I heard somewhere onions can sweeten up the sauce and get rid of that acid taste. Seemed to work.

Once long ago, I remember having a sun dried tomato and thought it tasted delightful. I had a bag of those and thought why not?

So I tasted one first, (I'm learning to taste everything as I go lately), and thought it was kind of pleasant so I chopped them up into tiny pieces and threw them in the pot.

What I've ended up with is a rich, thick, pretty, semi-sweat, very low acidic, and rather perfect tomato sauce, As far as tomato sauces goes, I don't think it gets much better than this.

Hum, is this why Italians like tomato sauce so much?

Tomorrow, my first Lasagna with this sauce. Wish me luck.

Thanks Rouxbe!

of a recipe with only a few, high quality ingredients yeilding outstanding results... Cheers!

Question from Dan and answered by Dawn, and I'm still confused.
Are we to use four 28 oz cans of tomatoes which would equal 112 oz total for the basic tomato sauce? Sorry for the dumbness but as a never have cooked before newbie, and as this my first try, I would like to get it right. Thanks a heap.
Gordie F

The text recipe says "four 28-ounce cans whole tomatoes", so that means you should be using 4 cans (each 28 ounces) which equals 112 ounces total. Cheers!

I made some tomato sauce this weekend using San Marzano Tomatoes, Wow flavor rich. It comes in whole and chopped, also seen in paste.

If using passata instead of canned tomatos, how much for this recipe?

Thanks

You can use the same amount. 112 ounces total. Cheers!

Can this recipe be cut down to one-fourth to use one 28 oz can of tomtatoes?

I suppose it could be cut down but I don't think that I would cut it down that far as it would be so little to cook when it comes to the other ingredients. Besides, if you are going to go to all that effort why not make a bit more - any leftovers can also be frozen. That being said, you can try it if you like just be sure to use an appropriate size pot for the amount you are making. Cheers!

Hi Guys,
Our local 4-H club has a Foods project of which I'm the leader. We have 10 kids who love to learn about food, cooking, baking and everything edible so has part of the curriculum I decided to teach them about pasta and how to make a simple tomato sauce using your recipe. However, I was a little dubious to the benefit of using the San Marzano tomato vs.other paste tomatoes (roma) so we had a taste test. I made half the recipe using San Marzano and the other half using an organic roma tomato; the winner, hands down was the sauce with the San Marzanos. Students, parents and leader are all sold.
Thanks for your great program; it's amazing.

Hello,

I am new to Rouxbe and will be making the tomato sauce tomorrow (looking forward to it!) I did find the San Marzano tomatoes, much to my delight. However, my grocer carries both the whole and the puree. According to the can, the puree is simply crushed whole less the seeds. So it seemed apparent to me that I could buy the puree and sidestep the entire food mill/seeding process. Would you concur?

Thank you, I'm really loving this online cooking school!!! I've learned so much in such a short time.

Happy Cooking,
Lisa

While it would seem logical that you could simply just buy crushed or pureed tomatoes instead of whole tomatoes and get the same results, this is usually not the case. Different brands of crushed or pureed tomatoes vary considerably in consistently and taste - some are thick and/or chunky while others can be watery and thin. If you find a brand that has good flavor and texture then by all means you could try using it. I seem to recall that the organic Glen Muir was pretty good. Here is a link for more information on buying canned tomatoes.

To know for sure if there is a difference I would recommend that you do a comparison using different tomatoes. Hope this helps. Cheers!

Thanks for your reply, Dawn. I don't think I made it very clear that I found both the whole and puree in the San Marzano brand, so that is why I was thinking I could save the extra step and purchase the puree since this is a trusted and high quality canned tomato product.

Since the puree is San Marzano, I went ahead and took a chance and purchased them. Here's hoping I get a good result!

Lisa

I have a lot of trouble finding canned San Marzano tomatoes that do not contain citric acid so I use Pomi tomatoes. The ingredient list simply read "tomatoes". I find they have a great flavor without that sharp edge that canned tomatoes often have.

Margaret

Hi,
I have made this recipe and others like it (like shredding carrots to sweeten). I have noticed that while the sauce right after preparation tastes good it is also a kind of bland compared to my favorite restaurants. However, the same sauce after being frozen for some time will taste magnitudes more sweet and all around better (this happened with this recipe and some manicotti I used it on, comparing some we had immediately and a dish we stored for about a month in the freezer).

Am I crazy here?! What might explain this and, if so, is there any way make my sauce better right after preparation.

A tomato sauce will taste more balanced and full-bodied the next day, so that is a good observation. The same goes with soups, stews, or just about anything cooked with a few ingredients in a somewhat wet preparation.

I thought I had been making the perfect tomato sauce for years until I made this one. Always wondered why my sauce looked so pale and now I know it was the seeds which i lidquidized along with the tomatoes doh.....

Got to get a food mill though as cruching up tomatos by hand is a bit messy plus I don't think I got all the juice.

I had to simmer for an hour to get the right consistancy but am thinking this might be because I could only squeeze the tomatos by hand which may not have gotten all the fibre from the tomatos?

Good work Glenn, you are learning that most things are not exact in cooking. There is almost always room to improvise. as ingredients are not always the same, temperature may vary etc etc etc. For that same reason the time it takes to cook this sauce to achieve the right consistency will vary. There are times when I have simmered it for well over an hour. The more you cook and practice the more you will understand that cooking is less about times and more about what is happening in the pot. Hope this helps. Cheers!

I managed to find some San mazarno toms recently (ex citric acid) so decided to try 2 batches of sauce- one with good quality italian tin toms that were less than half the price of SM toms. I must say the SM batch was definitely nicer. However, with my unsophisticated pallet The cheaper version was almost as good so will prob not use SM again- unless Gordon Ramsey pops over at some point!!!

Yes, if you can find cheaper tomatoes and can't tell a big difference, by all means, use what you like. It is hard to find true San Marzano tomatoes in many parts of the world. It's just good to be armed with the knowledge. Cheers!

Also, the other day I picked up some tinned Pomodorino D'oro tomatoes (Sweet Yellow). Not sure what they will be like but was curious to how they'd taste. Have you ever used them?

How many times do you put the tomatoes through the food mill? It seems like there is a lot of pulp left.

Also wanted to know if you can use fresh home grown tomatoes.
Gordon

The tomatoes are usually put through the food mill only once or twice.

And as for whether or not you can use fresh tomatoes, the answer is yes you can. See earlier in this thread for a few other discussions and more information on this. Cheers!

I bough a food mill with 3 blades: coarse, medium, and fine. I used the finest one, but many seeds still came thru!! I can't buy another mill right now, but worried my sauce will be bitter because of the seeds. Plus it doesn't look so pretty in such a thin sauce...

Don't worry if a few seeds have fallen through; however, if you aren't happy with the food mill, consider returning it for a different one. Depending on the type of tomatoes used, the texture can vary. Just go ahead and still make the sauce. I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Cheers!