The long and the short of it
Sunday gravy, red sauce, marinara, ragu. These legendary sauces, all based upon the humble canned tomato, have the ability to elevate a box of pasta to the heights of culinary majesty.
Long-cooked sauces — like Sunday gravy, the touchstone of the Italian-American kitchen, or Bolognese ragu, the storied heart of the cooking of Emilia Romagna — require hours of diligent, though not difficult, work.
But tomato sauce does not have to be a big production. With a can of good tomatoes and 15 minutes, you can even make a sauce vastly superior to (and cheaper than) anything you can buy in a jar.
<B>Buy whole tomatoes: </B>Even if I am planning to crush or puree them, I always buy whole tomatoes. I figure the best specimens are selected for the "whole" cans, while factory seconds can end up in the crushed or pureed cans.<B>Brands matter: </B>Taste the contents of two cans side by side; there can be significant differences. I usually buy imported San Marzano tomatoes from Italy — whatever is on sale at the Italian grocer or pork store. I'm partial to La Bella San Marzano, but that's partly because the label is so pretty.<B>Don't overdo the garlic: </B>Unless I'm trying to ward off vampires, I just saute a few cloves of peeled and halved garlic in oil, add the tomatoes just as they begin to color, then fish out the cloves when the sauce is done. (I also have a thing against using both garlic and onion in the same sauce, but that's just me.)<B>Long cooking is not necessary: </B>If you have meat in your sauce, you will need at least an hour (and maybe longer) to extract its flavor and make it silky, but if it's a meatless sauce, 45 minutes should suffice. There's no reason to add water to a tomato-only sauce. You'll only have to simmer the sauce longer to reduce it. Meanwhile, the fresh taste of the tomatoes will simmer away.<B>Cook the pasta and sauce together in the pot: </B>Here's the way pasta is finished in Italy (as anyone who has watched "Lidia's Italy" on TV knows): Place the minimum amount of sauce you'll need in a wide skillet (it might be the skillet in which you cooked it), then add the pasta. You can transfer spaghetti directly from the cooking pot with tongs, macaroni with a wire strainer. Over high heat, toss pasta and sauce together, adding a little pasta-cooking water if you need to loosen the sauce. Remove from heat and add grated cheese.
1 (28-ounce) can peeled San Marzano tomatoes, crushed, with the juice½ cup (1 stick) butter1 large onion, peeled and cut in halfSaltPut all ingredients in a saucepan and cook, uncovered, at a slow but steady simmer, for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomatoes.Stir from time to time, mashing any large pieces of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon.Taste and correct for salt.Discard the onion before tossing sauce with pasta. Makes about 2 cups of sauce, enough for 1 to 1½ pounds of pasta. pounds of pasta.
4 tablespoons butter4 tablespoons vegetable oil3 carrots, finely chopped (about 1½ cups)3 ribs celery, finely chopped (about 1½ cups)¼ cup finely chopped parsley1 large onion, finely choppedSalt1 pound ground chuck1 pound ground veal (or another pound of beef)Freshly ground pepper¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg1 cup dry white wine (optional)2 cups whole milk1 (28- or 35-ounce) can San Marzano tomatoesPlace butter, oil, carrots, celery, parsley, onion and 1 teaspoon salt in a large, heavy Dutch oven. Cover and place over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until fat begins to sizzle, then uncover and cook until vegetables soften, become translucent and lose some of their brightness. (Vegetables should not brown; you may have to turn heat down to low.)Still over medium to low heat, add meat, another teaspoon of salt, a good grinding of pepper and nutmeg. With a large spoon, break up meat, smearing it against the bottom of the pot, so it's well integrated with the vegetables. Cook, stirring constantly, until meat loses all of its raw color and begins to look a bit granular, about 10 minutes. Add wine, turn heat up to medium high, and cook, stirring constantly, until wine is evaporated and the bottom of the pot looks almost dry, about 10 minutes.Pour milk into pot and bring to a simmer. Simmer slowly until the milk evaporates, about 45 minutes. Stir frequently — especially toward the end — and make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.Add tomatoes, crushing them with your hands before adding them to the pot. Rinse out the tomato can with about a cup of water and add to pot. Turn down heat to a very low simmer; bubbles should only occasionally break the surface. Cook for 3 hours uncovered. Makes about 2 quarts.
½ cup olive oil1 clove garlic, peeled½ small onion, peeled but intact1 (14-ounce) can tomato paste4 ounces (1 tomato-paste can's worth) red wine4 leaves fresh basil (or 1 teaspoon dried)1 teaspoon salt½ teaspoon black pepper2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes2 pounds meatballs or Italian pork sausage, browned in a skilletHeat oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-low heat. Add garlic and onion and cook until golden brown. Remove and discard. Add tomato paste and stir into oil. Fill tomato-paste can with wine, swish it around to get excess paste, and pour into pot. Add basil, salt and pepper, turn heat up and stir until liquid has evaporated, about 2 minutes.Add canned tomatoes to the pot, rinsing out each can with water and adding that water (about 2 cups) to the pot. Adjust heat so sauce simmers slowly, and cook, with the lid askew, stirring occasionally, until sauce is thick and silky, 1 to 1 ½ hours. Add browned meat and cook for up to an hour longer.Serve sauce with pasta and place the meatballs or sausage on a separate platter. Makes enough sauce for 1½ pounds pasta.
