Rich Winter Tomato Sauce Recipes

WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a heavy 5-quart saucepan cook onion, carrot, celery, garlic, basil, oregano, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste in oil over moderate heat, stirring, until vegetables are softened and add wine. Boil wine until most is evaporated and stir in tomato paste and tomatoes with reserved juice.
• Simmer sauce, covered, over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, 35 minutes and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes, or until thickened. Discard bay leaf. Sauce may be made 2 days in advance and kept covered and chilled.

RICH WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a small bowl soak dried tomatoes in boiling water 30 minutes and drain in a sieve over a bowl. Chop soaked tomatoes coarse.
• While dried tomatoes are soaking, in a saucepan cook onion and garlic in butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add canned tomatoes with juice, stirring to break up tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste and simmer sauce, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.
• Purée sauce through the fine disk of a food mill or force it through a coarse sieve set over a bowl. Sauce may be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.

WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Using fingers, split open tomatoes; remove and discard seeds. Chop tomatoes; reserve juice. Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chopped tomatoes and reserved juice and all remaining ingredients; stir to combine. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until sauce is reduced to 4 cups, stirring often, about 1 hour.
• Remove bay leaf and any stems from herbs. Pass sauce through food mill fitted with large holes. Alternately, transfer to processor. Using on/off turns, process to coarse puree.

RICH AND ZESTY RED WINE TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a large pot, sweat the chopped onions and garlic in the olive oil over med-low heat.
• Add the peeled tomatoes, crushing them with your hands one by one into smaller chunks. Be careful- they squirt all over the place! Make sure to pour in all the liquid in the cans as well. Add all ingredients except salt, cheese, and wine.
• Stir all ingredients together. Cover, and increase heat to med-high. Simmer/cook 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally so that the sauce doesn't burn on the bottom.
• Add about 1/3 of the bottle of merlot. Add the cheese. Stir, reduce heat slightly and let that cook uncovered for another 15-20 min, stirring occasionally.
• Taste and determine if you need salt, and add to taste. For salt with a little tang, add some more cheese, if you have it. Let simmer another 15 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally.
• During the last simmering stage, cook your pasta.
• Serve over pasta (1 ladleful is gracious plenty). Extra sauce can frozen for up to a month. To reheat, let simmer on low uncovered, stirring frequently so the sugar in the merlot doesn't burn.
• *Spicy alternative: For a spicier sauce, use shiraz in place of merlot and add 2 tsp of dried red pepper flakes.