Pasta Sauce made with garden tomatos.

Kelley,

Just curious.....did you cook your sauce long enough ? Usually when its cooked for a set amount of time, you don't need to add a thickener.

Petals.

I make my sauce every year and I just cook it down until it reaches that "sauce state" & seasoned to taste.

I think when you have good garden tomatoes, you want a very simple sauce and not to cook it too long or you lose the fresh taste (might as well use canned then). 

I cut them roughly and cut a celery stalk, a carrot and an onion into large chunks.  Cook only until the vegetables are tender.  No oil or soffritto or anything.  No herbs.  Simple. 

Then blend it with an immersion blender or in the regular blender but be careful not to fill more than half because the hot sauce will squirt out. 

The blending makes it thick. 

Boil the pasta, drain.  Just as it's drained, put back in the pot, sprinkle a couple of handfuls of parmigiano on it but don't stir (it will all stick to the pot instead of the pasta if you do) and then a half a minute later, dump the sauce on it.and stiir it so it's all covered.  

You can put some fresh basil on it at the end (if you cook the basil it changes flavor).  

You won't believe how wonderful.

You can also add a drizzle of olive oil or a walnut sized piece of butter with the sauce, but it's not necessary.   

What about seeds and skin?

dcarch

I got some great heirloom pear tomatoes last week from our local produce stand. They were extremely heavy for their size and fresh picked, very meaty almost over ripe.

I peeled & seeded them and made sauce. Just good olive oil, onion, garlic & some torn basil. Used it for a pasta special with grilled chicken breast, spinach,crimini mushrooms & a bit of goat cheese.

I was prepared to add some paste to it, but no need. I have not seen tomatoes like these in years!

.

What is the fascination with thick sauce?  Why not cook the tomatoes and let them be what they are?  Usually the only places I've seen that serve thick tomato sauce are..... Olive Garden.

Some regions in Italy there are many thin tomato base sauces . Mama though likes the old fashioned thick way.  Me I like both. We are talking plum tomatoes only no skin and seeded. More toward the North of Italy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dcarch 

What about seeds and skin?

 

dcarch

I just leave them in.  If you blend them they are not noticeable. 

Another way of making sauce with fresh tomatoes is to peel and seed them.  It seems a big bother to me, though i have done it occasionally.  If i'm going to go through the bother, then i will do a sautee of garlic or onion in oil or butter and add the tomatoes, peeled and seeded and cut up, let cook something like ten minutes, squash slightly and mix with the drained pasta. 

Maybe if I want to be extra fancy i would do an "alla Norma" sauce (eggplant) or a fish sauce. 

Some people do some don't > I always have because some are quick cook sauces and skin does not break up correctly and seeds tend to be bitter. In a long cooking  sauce OK

I generally cook for me and my family, and none of us mind the skin, though if i do peel them there is a bit of difference in the taste, maybe because of the quick boil they have before peeling, maybe because more of the inside is exposed to the sauteed vegetables (not so in the simple boiled sauce that is blended though).  As for seeds, i notice that not all seeds are bitter, and some tomatoes have few seeds. 

I also don't peel, besides for the added work, because inside the peel is some of the reddest and tastiest part of the tomato.  I find myself wanting to scrape it off with a spoon, one by one (and no way i ever really should be taking that kind of time).  It's not easy to get the very fine layer of peel without taking that outer part of the pulp that has reddened under the sun. 

I do agree the peel detracts from the sauce, and makes the pieces of tomato stay separate instead of sort of coming apart so they mix well with the pasta.  In a restaurant i would peel. 

just to add a note that is a little but not too much off topic and has been said before, i know.

If you don't already, mix the pasta with the sauce thoroughly.  It prevents the pasta from becoming gluey and stuck, and gets the flavor through it.  Presenting it with the sauce poured in the center of the white pasta is in no way traditional but far more relevant, doesn't taste nearly as good.  In fact, better yet, toss the pasta in the pot with the sauce and finish cooking the last minute in its sauce.

I don't peel them either, but I cut the tomatoes in rather small chunks. First I quarter them from top to tail, then half the quarters in the same direction, then cut them in 3 parts in the other direction.

Also, I don't mix the sauce after it's cooked. Speaking of which, my experience tells me that the longer you cook the tomatoes, the better the sauce gets, on condition that you reduce the fire to low, otherwise a lot of the flavor gets lost (same principle when making any stew imo).

Some of the tricks in the book have already been mentioned. Most important is indeed to not add tomatopaste, as been said already, it kills the freshness. My sauce will mostly be chunky and not too thick, but I add a small dash of the cooking water of the pasta in the final stage of cooking the sauce. And cooking the pasta al dente and adding it immediately to the sauce makes the sauce stick better to the pasta. Often, at the last minute of the cooking time of the sauce I add a few drops (more teaspoon-ish) of vinegar and -to compensate if necessary- a sprinkle of sugar. This gives a lot of depth and flavor to the sauce, but many times it's done out of necessity, as sadly enough, in my country, we have a lot of local tomatoes, all grown in greenhouses, that never get that deep sweet natural flavor from tomatoes growing under the hot sun like in the Mediterranean area...

Chris instead f sugar, add a pinch of sodium bicarbonate. It sweetens the sauce by lowering acid content of tomato, also sugar tends to burn where soda doesn't

That's a new one to me, Chef Ed. I have to try that, thanks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by siduri 

II also don't peel, besides for the added work, because inside the peel is some of the reddest and tastiest part of the tomato.  I find myself wanting to scrape it off with a spoon, one by one (and no way i ever really should be taking that kind of time).  It's not easy to get the very fine layer of peel without taking that outer part of the pulp that has reddened under the sun. 

 

I find that if i cut the tomato in half and then grate it flesh side down on a grate I can get all the way down to the peel and get that last little bit of flesh on the skin which like you say, is tender and delicious.  Or you can try blanching the tomatoes, the peel comes right off. 
 

well, just to be different i guess, or lazy.....

i quarter, if roma or wedge if beefsteaks, pour olive oil over, throw on a TON of whole peeled garlic cloves, salt and pepper,italian seasoning, sometimes onions if i need to use them up and roast in the oven(375) for about an hour or so.......i like a bit of black on the edges, so that's my judge...then into the fp for a spin(on/off pulses) around the block and all is right with the earth! yo, now where's the warm bread? did someone say focaccia?

joey

I have canned tomato paste that I create small tablespoon size "dollops" that I wrap individually in plastic wrap and freeze. When I need to help "thicken" a tomato based sauce, I just unwrap one or two and add them to the sauce on the stove.