Homemade Tomato Sauce

There is nothing in the world that makes me happier than puttering around my kitchen cooking while listening to Al Green.  “Let’s Stay Together” is hands down the most romantic song I’ve ever heard and just hearing it makes me want to sashay around my counter.  With a mixing spoon as my microphone, I sing at the top of my lungs while the kitties wonder if I’ve gone mental.  I haven’t…I just believe that the art of cooking deserves a soundtrack.  Food feeds the belly, but for me, music feeds my soul.

So what songs do I love cooking to right now?

Matt Kearney’s “Closer to Love” – a rhythm of drums, piano and his soothing but edgy voice bearing his heart to the love of his life.

Chris Botti with Shawn Colvin’s “All Would Envy” – a tale of the heartbreaks of a May-December romance gone wrong with Shawn’s haunting voice accompanied by Chris’s weeping trumpet

Jason Mraz’s “Butterfly” – a horn section to die for with lyrics that are seductively wicked…all sung by the second cutest guy who wears a fedora in my world (the first of course being The Boy)

Stevie Nick’s “Edge of Seventeen” – Stevie’s gravely, earthy voice belting out with such raw emotion demands you get up and accompany her

Melissa Etheridge’s “Similar Features” – A simple guitar rift echoes through Melissa’s aching monologue to a lover who has left her for another woman

All of these songs and a few others were wafting through my speakers as I lovingly created this homemade tomato sauce.  It was an overcast day, the perfect setting to stay in and cook up something slow and satisfyingly simple.  I adapted the recipe from Giada de Laurentiis’s Simple Tomato Sauce and the tweaks made for a richer, more complex flavor that smoked anything on the shelves at the grocery store.  It helped that I had gotten all the ingredients (except the bay leaves) from the farmers market or my own herb garden (yup…I’m successfully growing the herbs!) – so everything was fresh.  And I’d like to think my singing helped…

Simple Tomato Sauce (adapted from Giada de Laurentiis)

4 pounds fresh tomatoes, diced

1 carrot, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 teaspoon fresh oregano, chopped

6 basil leaves

2 dried bay leaves

1 1/3 cup good quality olive oil

2 to 4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

2-3 mason jars for the sauce

In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium high heat.  Add the onions and garlic and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes.  Add the carrots and salt and pepper to taste (I used about a small tablespoon of salt and three grinds of my pepper mill worth of pepper).  Continue cooking for another 4 to 5 minutes or until the carrots are tender.  Add the tomatoes, fresh basil, oregano and bay leaves and simmer on low, covered, for about an hour or until the mixture has thickened.  Occassionally stir the mixture to make sure it doesn’t stick to the pot, but always remember to re-cover the pot.  After the sauce has sufficiently thickened, taste it to make sure there is enough salt and pepper.  Add 2 tablespoons of butter and stir until melted.  Taste the sauce to see if it’s still somewhat acidic.  If it is, add another tablespoon of butter one at a time until the flavor is rounded out.  Once the sauce is to your taste, allow it to cool.

Working in batches, pour the sauce into a food processor.  Blitz on high until the tomato sauce is smooth (or until it reaches your desired consistency…some people like their sauces slightly chunky).  Using a funnel, pour the sauce into mason jars and firmly screw on the lids.  The recipe makes enough to fill 3 mason jars.  Place in the refrigerator and use within the next 2 weeks.  If you do not plan to use it all within 2 weeks, you can freeze some of the sauce in freezer bags for up to 6 months.

So what songs do you like to cook to?

Tagged as: sauce recipes, sauces, tomato recipes, tomato sauce, tomato sauce recipe, Tomatoes