members recipes

This is my go to homemade tomato sauce recipe. When you look at the list of ingredients, you’ll see why I call this ‘two’ easy. I use two of everything and then scale the recipe up depending on how much sauce I want. This makes it really easy to remember! I use this sauce for all kinds of dishes: lasagna, chicken parmesan, baked rigatoni, or simply poured over raviolis or pasta. It’s also great as a base for more interesting sauces: + Add vodka & heavy cream to make a tomato vodka sauce + Add grated cheeses like parmesan, pecorino, romano + Add some red chili pepper and/or chili pepper flakes for an Arrabbiata sauce + Add a glug of red wine Julia Child style, if you’re drinking while cooking which I sometimes do The sauce freezes wonderfully, so I usually double or triple the recipe. I use some immediately and then and freeze the rest in freezer bags so I have some at hand when I’m in a hurry.

Ingredients
Makes 3 cups (800 ml) of sauce:

2 small cans (400g | 14oz) of chopped tomatoes
2 medium celery stalks, roughly chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
2 large cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 dried bay leaves
2-3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large handful of fresh basil
½ teaspoon salt & fresh ground pepper

Note: You’ll also need a hand mixer, blender, food processor or food mill to puree the sauce at the end.

Method
1. Roughly chop all the celery, peeled carrots, garlic and basil.

2. Heat a large pot over medium heat and add 2 tablespoons olive oil

3. Add carrots and celery to pot and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat.
> You don’t want to brown the veg, just sweat them to draw out some moisture and concentrate the flavor. This step only takes a few minutes but will make a bit difference in adding flavor to the sauce.

4. Add garlic to pot with the carrot and celery and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

5. Add 2 cans of chopped tomatoes with all the juices, basil and bay leaves.

6. Simmer for 1 hour.

7. After an hour, remove bay leaves and use a hand mixer, blender, food processor or food mill to puree the sauce.
> Be careful if using a blender with hot sauce – remember to vent the lid and not fill it up all the way to prevent the top from exploding off and spewing hot sauce all over your kitchen.

8. Taste the sauce and add 2-3 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
> This will help to mellow out the acid from the tomatoes, round out the flavor and give the sauce a nice silky finish