A Saucy Closed Blog

Day Two of the "HBIC Prepares For Winter" event is happening today, and I need to turn a large number of tomatoes into something that gets used a lot in my kitchen: tomato sauce. I'll admit that tomato sauce can be used in a multitude of ways - pasta sauce, pizza sauce, barbeque sauces - but the preparation of it is both time-consuming and, to a degree, laborious thanks to needing to peel all the tomatoes used in the sauce. Nevertheless, the final product is always enjoyable, so it behooves me to get this sauce made.

Because I'm working on that today, HBIC is officially closed on Labour Day for a little kitchen labour. I won't leave you without the important stuff, though, as there is a recipe I follow for this amazing sauce. Marcella Hazan's recipe from the New York Times is what I follow, so here's her amazing way to make tomato sauce that requires just four simple ingredients and a watchful eye!

Ingredients

• 2 cups of tomatoes with juice, peeled
• 5 tablespoons of butter
• 1 onion, cut in half and peeled
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Combine the tomatoes, their juices, the butter, and the onion halves in a saucepan. Add a pinch or two of salt. DON'T OVER-SALT!
2. Place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cook, uncovered, for about 45 minutes. Stir occasionally, mashing any large pieces of tomato with a spoon. Add salt as needed.
3. In Marcella's recipe, she recommends discarding the onion, but I like it in there. Wait until the onion becomes translucent and, as above, use a spoon to cut the onion pieces into smaller chunks. When all is said and done, this recipe makes enough sauce for a pound of pasta.

In today's day and age, I use an immersion blender to get rid of any larger chunks, but the key to this sauce is allowing it to simmer off the water content to make a nice, thick tomato sauce. Once cooled, it can be transferred to a container and frozen, or stored in the refrigerator for up to a week. If it separates, just heat it a little and give it a stir, but anything requiring a tomato-based sauce will have an exquisite base upon which you can build.

I'm off to blanche tomatoes in order to peel them, so I'll be back tomorrow with more hockey stuff. If I get adventurous, I may try to finish off the NHL '94 rosters in between batches of sauce. Either way, it's going to be a busy Monday for me on the appropriately-named holiday Monday known as Labour Day!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!