Peak of Season Tomato Sauce, Anyone?
You know what time it is? It's the height of tomato season. Or, for some, it's approaching the height of tomato season -- depending on your area and climate. Anyway, with that we'd like to share with you a perfect sauce to use for this glorious time of year, local chef Joanne Weir's aptly-titled Peak Season Tomato Sauce. It's very simply and delicious, period; and doesn't involve superfluous paste, bay leaves, carrots, celery or other filler. It's all tomato taste. Also, while it calls for you to use (preferably organic) tomatoes at their peak, good canned tomatoes (like San Marzano, but be wary, or Bella Terra) will do in a pinch.
Peak Season Tomato Sauce
Serve this sauce with creamy polenta and grilled sausages or your favorite pasta.
4 pounds ripe plum tomatoes, cored and halved
1 small red onion
6 garlic cloves, halved
3 sprigs fresh basil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
Place the tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a large pot and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally , until the tomatoes collapse, about 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until the sauce is thick, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Pass the sauce through a food mill fitted with the finest blade. Season to taste with salt and pepper if necessary.
This sauce can be refrigerated for 1 week or frozen for 2 months.
Makes about 4 cups
-- Joanne Weir
Or grab Ragu's Meat Sauce at your corner bodega. That's good too. Who are we to tell you how and what to eat? But, if we may, Weir's sauce is simple and perfect for almost anything.
What's more, the sauce comes from Weir's tomato staple, You Say Tomato, a book we pore through each summer to make savory-sweet treasures like tomato juice, tomato galettes (i.e., tomato tarts), cheddar-crusted tomato and roasted pepper flan, or tomato-saffron braised chicken. And if cooking isn't your thing, a simple organic tomato sliced thick with a sprinkling of lemon juice will also do nicely.