Classic Tomato Sauce

Name: Classic Tomato Sauce
Yield: Makes 7 cups
Ingredients: 1/4 cup olive oil; 1 onion, finely diced; 1 bay leaf; 1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano or 1/2 teaspoon dried; 2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped; 2 teaspoons salt or to taste; 2 tablespoons tomato paste; Two 26-ounce boxes Pomi chopped tomatoes or two 28-ounce cans whole plum tomatoes, chopped with their liquid

January 24, 2012

Since everyone has his or her version of this sauce, we spent a lot of time getting this one right. No surprise, the best results came from using the best ingredients. When it comes to tomato sauce, using poor-quality canned tomatoes can leave an acidic or tinny taste in your mouth. So while it is a bit more expensive, we like to use Pomi brand chopped tomatoes (you know, the ones that come in the box). The sauce starts with a careful “sweating” of onions (cooking them slowly, until translucent but not brown, to extract as much flavor as possible), and the flavor continues to build from a nice, long, low-heat simmering after the tomatoes are added.

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