My neighbor just gave me some homegrown tomatoes. While some of them will be eaten or put on a sandwich (I’m a tomatoe fend). I’d love to make some of these lovies into a good sauce. Anyone know any really GOOD recipes? I like both chunky and smooth.
This recipe was recently mentioned in another thread.
fast, easy economical, healthy and yummy!
boil some penne or other pasta
melt some butter in a frying pan with tight fitting lid pan, about 1/2 tsp for each average size tomato.
add about 1/4 cup of chopped mushrooms, some chopped garlic and herbs, fresh basil is especially nice. Salt to taste . Chopped celery, or other vegies may be asdded if desired.
pour in 1/2 cup red wine.
allow to sit on burner, with power off, for 5 minutes. under lid. Dont peek.
chop some tomatoes up and add to frying pan, replace lid, low heat for 5 minutes.
When pasta is drained, bring heat up until mixture begins to boil, then pour onto pasta.
Top with parm cheese, grated - roast under broiler to brown cheese for extra yummy.
I’ve made thistwice so far this year. The second time, I omitted the cinnamon (didn’t like it in the first batch) and added a splash or two of white wine. The only problem is that it takes all day to cook, but doggone is it tasty.
Plus when it was done, I added cooked meat and mushrooms to it for even more awesomeness. Good stuff!
If you’re a real tomato fiend, then how about something really simple?
Put pasta on to cook.
Skin and deseed some tomatoes.
Chop the flesh into big ol’ chunks.
Chop some fresh basil
put some olive oil into a pan with some chopped garlic. Heat gently.
Mix everything together with some salt, pepper and some really good extra virgin olive oil.
That’s it.
I’ve posted a rather complicated tomato sauce recipe on many occasions, so won’t do it again here unless asked. The following sauce is very good:
3-4 slices bacon, cut into 1/4-1/2" strips
1/2 onion, cut in half and sliced thin (or chopped, if desired)
Chopped tomatoes
Salt
pepper
fresh basil chiffonade
Fry up the bacon until done, remove from pan. Saute the onion until translucent, about five minutes. Return the bacon to the pan. Add the tomatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover. Simmer for about an hour. Taste and salt as necessary. Serve with fresh basil and ground pepper.
For a more lively dish, add red pepper flakes while the onion is sauteeing.
The thing is, you want plum tomatoes (AKA Roma tomatoes) for cooking. Slicing tomatoes, which is what most people typically grow, don’t make as good a sauce. If you don’t have Romas, I concur that the best thing to do is to make one of the pasta-and-uncooked tomato dishes mentioned above.
Amatriciana:
Linguine, bucatini or spaghetti enough for one person
5 large tomatoes, peeled and then roughly chopped
Cured, unsmoked cubes of pork (such as pancetta, though they use cured pork cheek originally)
Half a glass of white wine
Salt to taste
1 hot pepper, roughly chopped
Olive oil
Pecorino cheese
Put the pasta on to boil in salted water (never oily water). Fry the pork in the oil until brown. Add the chilli pepper, then after a minute add the white wine. Reduce the wine and then add the tomatoes, the seasoning and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Cook gently for a further ten minutes until the sauce has thickened. Drain the pasta and put it into the pan with the sauce. Mix thoroughly and serve with the cheese.
1 head of garlic minced
1 yellow onion, minced
Sweat in olive oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 red pepper diced
Add to the garlic and onion
6 tomatoes, washed and diced
Oregano
Basil
Salt
Pepper
Add tomatoes to the pan with the rest of the seasonings. cook on low until the tomatoes are thoroughly cooked and use a potato masher to break it down. Add sausage. I use this recipe for both pasta and pizzas, but when I make pizza sauce, I just use a hand blender in the pan to make it smooth.
Also, I don’t just stick with roma tomatoes. I use whatever tomatoes I can get on the cheap (or free). It’s true that different types of tomatoes make different qualities of sauce, but it’s not as though sandwich tomatoes can’t be used. I made a delicious sauce with some just the other night.
From a local restaurant, I got this tip:
White wine
Garlic (I use frozen crushed cubes)
Salt
Pepper
Cream/milk
They didn’t tell me amounts or time, so I just throw in the wine, spices, and garlic and boil it till I get bored, or whenever. You put in the milk afterwards so it doesn’t curdle. And there you go, garlic cream sauce.
So. . .where do the tomatoes come in? 
Hey, I wanted to thank you for posting this link…I just made this and…WOW! It needed a bit of salt (I only had unsalted tomatoes) and I put just a sprinkle of red pepper on top, but what a great and unique flavor!
I’ll be making this a lot!
For good, fresh, ripe tomatoes, consider a fresh sauce: Pesto Trapanese (“Trapani-style”, very common in western Sicily). Prepare as you would a Pesto Genovese, in a food processor or mortar:
2-3 cloves garlic (I like more, though)
30 g blanched almonds
Salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, to taste
Bunch of basil (or a combination of this and/or other fresh herbs like parsley and mint)
100 g peccorino cheese
500 g ripe tomatoes (peeled and seeded, or at least seeded)
Olive oil, as needed