Tomato Sauce 101

Mundane. Outstanding. Banal. All words I have used to describe one of the most commonplace sauces in any cooking repertoire: tomato sauce. And to make great tomato sauce the most important ingredients are the tomatoes. If you don't start with great tomatoes it won't matter what you add, it won’t be very good.

Once you have great tomatoes, decide which type of tomato sauce you need. I break tomato sauce into three different types. Each amazing and delicious on their own and each serving a different purpose.

The quickest and easiest is fresh tomato sauce. No cooking required.  This sauce has to be made with the best tomatoes available.  It’s bright and refreshing with chopped fresh tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and garlic at its core. From there you can add basil, capers, pine nuts, sun-dried tomatoes, some Balsamic vinegar…get creative. Cook your pasta of choice, al denté, toss hot pasta with the fresh sauce and top with a little cheese and maybe another splash of extra virgin olive oil; summer in a bowl.

The second type of tomato sauce is lightly cooked. It starts with sweating some onions and garlic in olive oil, adding herbs, tomatoes and cooking for no more than 15 or 20 minutes. Sweating onions and briefly cooking tomatoes brings a natural sweetness to this sauce. Toss with some sautéed shrimp and feta. Maybe add some pancetta and chilies. This is a go-to sauce for most recipes.

Lastly, there is the long simmer. This is a velvety tomato sauce with a great depth of flavour and richness. The longer cooking time melds together the vegetables’ flavours. The extended cooking time also produces a thicker sauce as water cooks off. This is the heavy hitter for rich meats like short ribs or mama's meatballs. Just make sure when you simmer this sauce you keep the heat low and stir often to keep it from catching on the bottom.

Enjoy!