marcella hazan's tomato sauce
three ingredients, utter perfection.
Marcella Hazan was, is, and always will be the mother of Italian cooking in the United States. I make her recipes frequently, but none as much as her tomato sauce.
A couple of weekends ago, while traveling, I visited a local farmer’s market, where the farmer was offering a five-pound bucket of heirloom tomatoes for $5 because they were “ugly”. I shit you not. I’ve never spent $5 so fast in my life.
Afterwards, my aunt asked me what I would do with them and, naturally, I said make the “Marcella Hazan tomato sauce”. Her response can be described as perplexed at best, but after making a giant vat of it the next day, she quickly understood.
Ingredients:
1 large pot full of fresh tomatoes, use your judgment (or 1 28 oz. can of crushed)
1 onion, cut in half
1 stick of good-quality butter
Process:
Core and chop tomatoes and slightly crush with the back of a knife. Add to a pot.*
Slice an onion in half and add to the pot with the tomatoes.
Add a stick of butter and bring the mixture to a boil.
Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 1-2 hours, do not touch it!
Blend the cooked onion into the rest of the sauce, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
*I don’t mind keeping the skins on my tomatoes for sauce, but feel free to boil the tomatoes and peel them if you wish.
Serve with fresh-cooked pasta, as the base of a pizza, or even add cream/stock for a delicious tomato soup. It also freezes beautifully!