Ok, I think I can cook fairly well for someone who is mostly self taught. I started by heating up jar spaghetti sauce and adding my own mushrooms, meat, onion, etc. Then I started doing what my mom did, buying cans of sauce, paste, and puree and mixing them together and cooking them with my fresh veggies and jar spices. Then I started using fresh spices instead of dried. All this over a number of years.
Now I am ready to take this to the next level. I want to take fresh raw whole tomatoes and turn them into spaghetti sauce. Besides tasting better, I figure the result will have much less sodium and other preservatives, so it’ll be healthier. So I need some help and advice on this.
Note that I have specific spices and ingredients that I like in my sauces. I’m not asking for sauce recipes. I just want to turn the tomatoes into sauce that I’m going to add my own spices and ingredients to. What types of tomatoes, how much, cooking method, etc, is what I am looking for. I gather that you boil the tomatoes in water for some time, then remove the water, skin the tomatoes, and continue cooking, but I need a little more info than that.
What type of tomato sauce do I want to make? Mostly a traditional nice thick sauce, although a marinara would be nice to know how to make. I do add a bit of sugar to my sauce to make it sweet, so maybe some sweeter varieties of tomatoes would work? I don’t know anything about tomatoes other than they are red and the store carries regular, vine, cherry, grape, and roma tomatoes.
After peeling the tomatoes, be sure to remove the seeds. Then you puree them and cook for several hours. You might reserve some of the tomato and dice them and add to the sauce for some textural variety.
You want Romas or some other meaty tomato. Blanch and peel, then deglop. Give them a rough chop and toss into your sauce pot. I like a chunky sauce so I don’t puree them.
A high quality canned tomato product like 6 in 1 contains tomatoes picked at their peak. If you’re gonna do this make sure you get local tomatoes from a good farmers market or friend , or better yet some from your own garden.
If you’re grabbing tomatoes from the Kroger you’re not gonna be impressed.
I’ve done both. Name brand canned diced tomatoes are generally going to make as good or better tomato sauce than most garden tomatoes. You’re cooking the heck out them anyway so the difference between fresh and canned in that context is kind of moot in the end.
Re sodium a good spaghetti sauce needs modicum of salt. Canned tomatoes have some salt but they aren’t loaded with it. I just generally let the canned tomatoes infuse their little bit of salt into the sauce then taste and add as needed (or not) at the end. The sodium differential in the end of canned vs fresh is very slight.
A know it sounds odd but fresh tomatoes off the vine do not make a noticeably better spaghetti sauce. The meaty name brand tomatoes are about as good as cooking tomatoes get for sauces.
I disagree. And if you buy quality tomato products, they won’t have added sodium/preservatives. I really like the Pomi brand which comes in cartons. Expensive, but probably not more so than processing a bunch of fresh tomatoes.
I saw a Jamie Oliver show once where an old nonna berated the chef for the same misconception. She took away his fresh tomatoes and gave him a jar of her passata instead!
Blanch tomatoes by dropping in boiling water 1 minute, run under cold water till you’re able to handle them, remove skins, remove seeds, cut out the white part on the stem end, puree to desired consistency (smooth or chunky) in blender or food processor.
Measure out pulp and follow any given recipe calling for tomato puree. 4 lbs of tomatoes makes about 1.5-2 quarts of pulp. Puree may be frozen for later use.
It isn’t rocket surgery, but, I agree, the results are hardly an improvement on good quality commercial puree. The only reason I do it is to use up excess tomatoes.
This is how I turn fresh tomatoes into spaghetti sauce:
Take your fresh tomatoes (from the garden or farmers market, not the supermarket) and chop a bunch of them up. Mix different heirloom varieties if you’ve got them. Put them in a large bowl. Then take a bunch of fresh basil, chop that up and add it to the bowl. Add a couple of teaspoons of olive oil, a splash of white wine, and some salt and pepper. Stir. Mince some garlic - as much as you like (we use a lot) and set it aside. Now boil your spaghetti. When it’s almost done, saute your garlic in a small nonstick frying pan in some olive oil, just till it’s golden brown. Add that to the large bowl. When the spaghetti is done, drain it, and add it to the bowl. Throw in some grated Parmesan cheese - the good stuff, not Kraft. Toss well. Serve with more cheese on top, and a dash of fresh ground pepper.
Any leftovers are really good eaten as a cold pasta salad.
I’ve also canned my own tomato sauce from homegrown and farmers market tomatoes. When I make my crockpot spaghetti sauce, I add one jar to the canned tomato puree and paste that make the basis of my recipe.
The tomato juices combined with the wine and the olive oil form a (very thin) sauce, and the tomatoes “cook” a bit when you add the hot pasta. And yes it is delish - I make it all the time in the summer when my tomato garden is in full swing.
Yep. I was going to suggest this one, too. Marcella Hazan is awesome. (Silly dog tore up my cookbook a couple weeks ago. Still got it lying around in a couple of pieces.)
But, as mentioned, if you’re going to do raw tomatoes from scratch, you better have good tomatoes. By that, I mean grow them yourself, or get them from a farmer’s market. Supermarket tomatoes, almost without exception, suck, and will make an insipid tomato sauce. When I make sauce, 95% of the time I use good quality canned tomatoes. The other 5%, tomatoes from my garden. That’s it. It really is not worth it to make sauce from your typical supermarket greenhouse tomato.
A simple sauce: tomatoes, thinly sliced onion and sauteed pieces of bacon. Simmer about an hour, top with fresh basil and ground pepper.
If you want a Sunday gravy recipe that simmers for hours, I can post that one also (although it lives elsewhere on this board). It’s the real deal, with meatballs and other meats.
I agree with those who say canned tomatoes are as good or better than fresh, except that any food you grow yourself will taste better than anything that comes in a can.
Try a vodka sauce. Peel and seed your tomatoes, then chop them up and drain well. Saute finely diced onion in 1/4 cup of oil until they are lightly browned. Stir in chopped garlic then slowly stir in the tomatos. Reduce heat to simmer and stir frequently until a chunky sauce is formed. Add seasonings of your choice, finely chopped oregano, basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, dill, red and black pepper. Stir in 1 cup of vodka and simmer for about ten minutes. Remove heat and allow to cool for a few minutes, then stir in 1 cup of heavy cream. Return to pan to burner and heat slowly while stirring to keep a smooth mixture.
You can pare this down for your individual family size, but keep in mind that the prep is a half-day affair. You might want to make the meatballs the day before and refrigerate them. The meatballs and sauce are excellent for meatball subs, also. You can mix up the ground meat to include ground pork, Italian sausage, lamb, or whatever you like. The pork and chuck pieces will be fall-apart tender. I’ve even browned a leftover piece of raw chicken and thrown it in.
Sauce
Salt and pepper
1 pound pork spareribs, neck bones or pork chops
1 pound beef chuck roast, blade steak or brisket
3 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 cup chopped onions
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 bay leaf
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes, preferably Italian
1 28-ounce can tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, roughly chopped
4 small or 2 large pickled peperoncini
Cooked meatballs (see recipe)
1 pound dried spaghetti for serving
Grated Parmesan for serving.
Sprinkle salt and pepper all over pork and beef. Place large pot over medium-high heat; when hot, add olive oil and brown meat. (Or cook meat in same pot used for meatballs, browning in the leftover fat.) Remove meat to a platter. Turning heat under pot to medium, add onions, and cook 3 minutes, stirring. Add garlic, and cook 2 minutes longer. Add tomato paste, and stir: cook until it absorbs fat in pan. Add oregano, basil, red pepper flakes, kosher salt and bay leaf, stirring to combine.
Add cans of tomatoes and tomato sauce, then 4-1/2 cups water. Stir in sugar, parsley and peperoncini. Return meats to pot with their juices. Bring sauce to a gentle boil. Turn heat down to a simmer, partly cover and leave sauce to simmer 2-1/2 hours or more, stirring regularly.
About 20 minutes before serving, add meatballs (see below) to pot. Boil spaghetti according to package directions. Drain, return spaghetti to pan and add 3 cups sauce. Toss pasta in pan for a minute to coat with sauce, and place on a large platter. Pour 2 more cups sauce over pasta. Place meat and meatballs on pasta, slicing large pieces. Serve with bowls of remaining sauce and Parmesan.
Yield: 6 to 8 servings.
In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except olive oil by hand, using a light touch. Take a portion of meat in hand, and roll between palms to form a ball that is firmly packed but not compressed. Repeat, making each meatball about 2 inches in diameter (smaller than a baseball, larger than a golf ball).
In a large, heavy pot heat olive oil over medium-high heat. When it shimmers, add meatballs in batches. Do not crowd. Brown well on bottoms before turning, or meatballs will break apart. Continue cooking until browned all over. Remove meatballs to a plate as each batch is finished. Let meatballs cool slightly; cover and refrigerate until needed.
Yield: About 16 meatballs.
This is pretty much correct all across the board, as long as you cook the puree. Cooking tomatoes pretty much uniformly evens the score; ripe, slightly unripe, commercial, home grown, etc… they all taste pretty much identical if cooked and pureed.
If I were you, I’d do the raw tomato route a couple of times, and see what you think, and then from there, work on a couple of good recipes.
This is one of my favorites:
You can substitute bacon or salt pork for the pancetta if that’s all you can get, and it’s still excellent, if a tad smoky. I imagine if you had guanciale, you could put that in too, although it’s probably not typical for Bolognese, being a more Central/Southern Italian ingredient.
You can also use all ground beef as well, and it’ll still come out great!
Leave out the basil and you have something really close to Pasta alla Amatriciana, but with bacon instead of the guanciale.
Oh, and I’ve done the fresh garden-grown tomato route enough to know what I’m talking about… enough to buy my own passata making device anyway. Even growing them at home, they’re only very marginally different than canned puree.
Ooo…that Saveur bolognese is one of my favorites. Also, this one by the Simili sisters of Bologna. (That recipe was also published in Saveur in '99 or '00.) The little bit of chicken liver gives the sauce an unidentifiable richness.
ETA: Amatraciana! Oh, we’re on the same page here. One of my favorite dishes, especially made with bucatini. I cured my own guanciale just so I could reliably make this dish (although now there is a source for guanciale in Chicago. Pancetta substitutes okay, too.)
