And the Winner is... Sauce Tomate, a Mother (of a) Sauce
A while ago, I asked people to vote for what we should cook next. Then I got really, really busy. Then I dislocated my shoulder. Sorry for the delay. The choice was between spaghetti sauce and easy glazed pork ribs.
Sauce was the surprise winner.
I’ll show you a basic Tomato Sauce with variations. Sauce Tomate is one of the Mother Sauces, so there are many variations.
The idea of Mother Sauces was first brought up by Marie-Antoine Carême. He created a list of four sauces that were the basis for multiple variations. In 1903, Auguste Escoffier added another in his book, Le Guide Culinaire.
Now we have Five Mother Sauces: Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Sauce Tomate, and Hollandaise.
The Mother Sauces are the basic building blocks of French Cuisine’s Sauciers . Starting from 5 basic sauces, the saucier can spin off thousands!
Equipment You’ll need
You need a big- assed pot. If you plan to make this, you might as well make a lot of it. For this recipe, the pot needs to hold at least 5 liters (quarts). Whatever pot you choose, fill it between half and three-quarters full. It is possible to use a pot that’s too big.
You’ll also need a wooden spoon. I like the paddle style, where the end is squared-off. I find I can dig and scrape bottoms with ease. I was going to use a picture of mine, but it sees a lot of use. It ain’t as pretty as this one.
You'll also need a potato masher thingie.
.
Ingredients
3 - 796ml (28 fl .oz.) Cans (yes, cans) of whole tomatoes. This requires a little explanation. Canned tomatoes are cooked, then canned. Diced tomatoes are cooked, diced, cooked again, then canned. Stick with whole tomatoes.
If you like your sauce thicker, use Italian or plum tomatoes. They have less liquid and more meat to them.
If, like me, you like it even thicker, substitute a can of ground tomatoes for one of the cans of whole tomatoes.
1 medium onion diced or thinly sliced. The easiest way to dice or slice an onion is to cut it in half through the root. Here's a video showing how.
2 or three Garlic cloves finely diced. You can use the same method as for dicing an onion. Use more or less garlic according to your taste.
A tablespoon or so of cooking oil. Don’t use a good olive oil here. It won’t hold up to the heat. If you want the olive oil hit, add a few tablespoons after cooking.
A teaspoon of sugar is optional. It will not sweeten the sauce so much as cut acidity.
Optional stuff that’s nice to have
Fresh Basil. You don’t need to chop it or anything. Just wash it and keep it whole. It’ll be easier to fish it out later. A few sprigs are plenty.
Don’t bother with dried basil, it’s useless.
Dried Oregano is different. Oregano can survive the drying process. Basil can’t. You can also use an Italian Seasoning mix. Grab a good couple of heaping tablespoons.
Method
1 – Heat the pot on medium, to medium-high heat.
2 – While the pan is heating, open the cans.
3 – When the pot is hot, add the oil. Wait until the oil starts to ripple.
4 - Toss in the onions. Stir and scrape every now and then. Allow them to soften and turn slightly brown around the edges. It should take a couple of minutes more or less.
5 – Toss in the garlic. Stir and scrape continuously. Don't be shy. Show them who's Boss! This should take a minute or two depending how finely you chopped the garlic.
It’s fine if some stuff sticks to the bottom, that's normal and it's a good thing. But, if a burned smell rises, scrap it all and start over. You’ve killed the sauce.
6 – Add the ground tomatoes if using. Stir and scrape.
7 - Add the tomatoes and sugar (if using). Stir and scrape well.
8 – Use your potato masher thingie to bust up all the tomatoes. Some people like to use a stick blender to puré the whole thing. I like the texture from just mashing the tomatoes. Your call.
Cover the pot but leave the lid ajar. Drop the temperature way down. How far down depends on your stove. Drop it down to Low. Wait 15 minutes.
Is the sauce simmering? Simmering means that a few bubbles pop up every second or so.
If there are more than five or six bubbles, ease the heat further down. If there are no bubbles, turn up the heat.
Once you figure out where the simmer point is on your stove make a mental note of it. Do not skip this step! Sauce Tomate can burn easily. There is no way to bring it back.
Alternate Cooking Method 1: If your pot fits in your oven, you can preheat the oven to 300F (175C). Cover the pot and let it bake slowly. It's next to impossible to burn the sauce this way.
Alternate Cooking Method 2: Use a slow-cooker. Follow all the steps above, then transfer the whole thing to your slow-cooker. Set it to high. It's impossible to burn it this way.
Cooking time
Cooking time is the same regardless of which method you use. You have two choices here. Tomato sauce is strange in that you can complete a sauce in an hour, or you can simmer it for 3 hours.
That's your call, one hour or three, nothing in between!
My preference is to go the full 3 hours. A 3-hour sauce is richer and less acidic.
In either method, if you are using fresh basil, toss it in about 45 minutes before the end of cooking. Basil is a fragile beast, but yummy.
This sauce freezes well. Let it cool until it no longer steams. Then fill the containers to three-quarters full (max). Fill one, set it aside, fill another, etc. Then go back and place the covers.
Simplified Variations
This sauce is good as is. But, it’s a Mother Sauce, so its strength is in its variations. Here are some simplified versions of common variations.
Bolognese
In a fry pan or pot (depending on quantity required), soften a small diced onion. Do not use any salt.
Add, and brown, a pound (454g) of lean ground beef or veal. Do not use any salt.
Add Sauce Tomate until you reach the desired consistency.
Cook the meat through.
Taste the sauce. If it doesn’t taste “beefy” enough, add a teaspoon or so of liquid beef broth concentrate.
Taste it again. Adjust beefiness as needed. Once it's to your taste, decide if it needs salt.
Make it extra thick for something like a lasagne. For spaghetti, I like it thick and meaty, while my wife prefers it more liquid. I fire up two pans and make two versions. It isn’t much more effort.
Vongole
Open and rinse a can of small clams . Here, in Canada, Clover Leaf sells them in 175ml size. That’s good for two people.
Heat about 360 ml (cup and a half) of Sauce Tomate. You can bring it to a snappy boil. Once it’s boiling, dump the clams in. Cook them for barely a minute. You just want to heat them through.
If it isn’t “clammy” enough for you, you can add some bottled clam juice to taste.
Arrabiata (quick home version)
Just spice it up. Throw in sliced, or diced hot peppers, hot sauce, cayenne pepper, or whatever you like.
Paul’s Tex-Mex Arrabiata
I use canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. One 186ml can is good for 500ml of sauce. That’s about 2 cups. Heat is a personal thing. This ratio may be too hot for you, or too bland.
Play with it.
I chop the chipotle and add it to the Sauce Tomate, adobo sauce and all. Then it’s just a question of heating it through.
What’s next?
Should we do Quick and Easy Glazed Ribs next? The Northern hemisphere is entering summer. I’m not that keen on running an oven for 2 or 3 hours. Maybe I can adjust the method to cook it on a grill?
Hummmm.
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Comments
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #12
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #11
Actually, James McElearney the next post will be for Quick And EZ version of glazed Ribs. The rub used will make a pretty good BBQ seasoning. For a sauce, that will be much later. Here, my goal is to get people cooking who don't cook. I offer short cuts and simplified methods. Sort of like Cooking 101. BBQ sauce is a very delicate balance that goes beyond what I'm trying to accomplish
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #10
Thanks, James, these posts allow me to put my rather pricey culinary education to some use other than sporadic recipe-creation gigs. Since I sold off the restaurant/bakery, I miss cooking up a storm
Lisa Gallagher
7 years ago #9
Thanks Paul \ you'd think I would have this aspect down after years of making pasta and 50% of the time I get run off on the plates, so aggravating. I really appreciate your tips!
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #8
At home, I get lazy so what I do is dump the pasta in a colander. Then I scoop a couple of spoons of sauce into the pot that I returned to the stovetop. The pot and stove are still both hot. Then I dump the pasta back in the pot and toss energetically. Professionally, that doesn't work as well because the pasta is colored by that bit of sauce. Similarly, pre-cheesing also works but is rarely done professionally due to the potential clean-up nightmare.
Lisa Gallagher
7 years ago #7
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #6
Re Salt: This recipe is based on canned whole tomatoes, which are already salted. If using fresh, salt but find another recipe. This one will not work well.
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #5
When you say, "shock the pasta," Lisa, do you mean you rinse with cold water? If so, I never do that, the surface starch rinses away and the sauce will stick less.
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #4
Dean, I don't use salt because this is a convertible base. If used as is, then add it by all means. Imagine beefing this up if it were already salted. Olive oil on high heat is wasteful at best, smokes at worst. It's not really needed. That said, your sauce, your choice.
Paul "Pablo" Croubalian
7 years ago #3
I don't rinse the pasta. After draining, I return it to the cooking pot for a few seconds and toss vigorously. At home, I add a little sauce just to play it safe. I want to get all the excess water off the pasta.
Lisa Gallagher
7 years ago #2
Dean Owen
7 years ago #1