My Italian Grandmother’s Basic Homemade Tomato Sauce

Name: My Italian Grandmother's Basic Homemade Tomato Sauce
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 240 min
Total time: 255 min
Ingredients: 1 tablespoon olive oil; 3 garlic cloves; 1 onion (coarsely shopped); 1 carrot (coarsely chopped); 4 large cans (28 ounce San Marzano Tomatoes (I use these)); fresh basil or parsley; 4 tablespoons butter; 1 teaspoon seasalt; 1 teaspoon black pepper

December 23, 2012 by Angela Roberts 104 Comments

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I am Italian. I’m picky about my tomato sauces, but probably not in the way you think. I like my sauce understated, balanced, bright and fresh, even though I used canned tomatoes. If you need a recipe for fresh garden tomato sauce, I have one here.

Here is a Video I made for my Italian Grandmother’s Homemade Tomato Sauce

I make two kinds of tomato sauces. The basic sauce is plain and balanced, with no seeds, no pulp, nothing chunky, suitable for a manicotti or ravioli, the kind my Italian grandmother and my aunts made. It didn’t have to have meat, although it often did. This is the recipe I’m sharing here.

This authentic Italian Tomato sauce is the little black dress of many Italian dishes.

Easy, authentic, homemade tomato sauce is what I grew up on nearly every Sunday, maybe made with meatballs and spaghetti, maybe made plain and used for stuffed shells.

If you’re looking for a sauce that has a lot of ingredients and spices and sits on the stove all day building up acid and later an attack to your stomach, this is not the sauce for you. I liken that kind of mutated tomato sauce to cheap, tacky dresses that never make a woman look good.

No no no, this is the Audrey Hepburn of sauces. Classy, classic, understated, hard to improve. In tomato sauce terms, bright, fresh, clean, as opposed to the heavy, overpowering, overcooked, over-seasoned sauce found in one of those restaurants with red checkered table cloths and Chianti bottles holding candles. (You shouldn’t eat at those places).

That’s like thinking every Italian is in the Mafia or on Jersey Shore. They are not; it’s just that those stereotype train wrecks are just fun to watch.

In South Philly, where my family originated, this basic sauce was simply referred to as gravy.

If you really want to get into the head of Italian cooking, watch this scene from the Big Night. It’s hysterical, but it explains a lot.

Easy, Authentic, Italian Homemade tomato sauce is almost as easy as opening up a jar, but better.

In Italy, restraint for tomato sauce is understood. In America, the sauce reflects our culture and the way we are. We think more is more, more ingredients, more cooking time, giant portions.

When I make classic spaghetti and meatballs, I like to use this basic sauce, maybe with some optional red chili flakes.

I usually make a sauce like this for lasagna, manicotti or stuffed shells.

Use the Right Tomatoes for Authentic Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce

I always start with San Marzano tomatoes, DOP. They cost twice as much as regular Italian plum tomatoes, but they are worth it. This is one place to splurge. I use the Cento D.O.P. certified Italian Tomatoes. You will taste the difference.

How to Make Authentic Italian Tomato Sauce

These tomatoes squish easily in your hand and are then taken through a food mill to make sure there is no pulp or seeds. I sauté big chunks of onion with a few cloves of garlic olive oil, then add in the tomato puree. Don’t worry if you don’t have a food mill. If you use Cento tomatoes, they yield very little pulp and you can just crush with your hands and add to the pot.

A little salt, pepper, parsley or fresh basil and that’s it. If I don’t happen to have San Marzano tomatoes, I add a carrot to the sauce to sweeten it up a bit.

I cook it just to the point that I’m happy with the thickness. This sauce is strained to a puree, to make sure I get out all of the onion and herbs. I cook this sauce no longer than two hours on very low and that is just to reduce it down.

This homemade tomato sauce just might be good enough at one hour and that all depends on the viscosity you desire. That’s just a fancy word for the flow or thickness of the sauce.

If you’re stretched for time, you can make my grandmother’s homemade tomato sauce in one hour.

If you’re stretched for time, do this. Do NOT add water. Use one onion, quartered and one carrot quartered per 2-4 cans of strained tomatoes. Cook for one hour on low. For extra flavor, use an immersion blender and blend in the onion and carrots.

Freeze this homemade tomato sauce for future meals.

Make a double or triple batch. Make sure sauce is cooled completely, and freeze in large ziplock bags for up to six months. Take out and defrost in a bowl of cold water.

This is a great sauce for Veal Meatballs

You might want to go and make some homemade pasta to go with it.

This sauce is great in Manicotti

This sauce is perfect for my Spinach Lasagna.

Try it with Eggplant Parmesan, (there’s also a gluten-free option)

To find out about some other great tomato sauces and one of the world’s legendary Italian cookbook authors, see the article I wrote here about cooking Italy with Marcella Hazan for a year.

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