From Sugo to Sauce...

My home-made sauce

After I finished my post about our adventure in pasta-making I realized that my Sugo 101 post gives you step-by-step directions on turning tomatoes into sugo, but does not tell you how you get from Sugo (boiled, crushed Roma tomatoes) to sauce...

OK - it is soooooo easy!


Naomi's Tomato Sauce

Ingredients:
1 jar of tomatoes
1 jar of passata
2 tbsp canola or olive oil
1 tbsp margarine
3 - 4 slices of onion (cooking is fine)
1 tsp garlic (I used frozen cubes - they don't burn)
salt to taste

Method:
In a medium saucepan, combine oil, margarine, onion and garlic.  Saute until translucent (careful not to burn the onion and garlic).  Then add your home-made jarred sugo.  If you don't have home-made sugo, you can used canned or jarred crushed/pureed tomatoes otherwise known as passata.  In fact, to stretch our sugo stash, we often add passata to our tomatoes and prefer La San Marzano brand (you can buy it at Costco).  Season with salt, to taste.  Let it reach a soft boil, and then reduce the heat to low, leaving your sauce to simmer - the longer the better!

* there are a variety of variations to this sauce - sometimes we add something to simmer for added flavour: a few carrots (sliced into smaller pieces), meatballs or stewing beef.

* if I have time, I might even prepare the sauce, let it simmer  for an hour or 2 on the stove, and then put the sauce in a crock pot to simmer, unattended, for hours.  Yumm!

* this sauce freezes well, and keeps for months!  We often freeze smaller batches of sauce for a quick pastina fix (broth with small cooked pasta and a hint of sauce), and larger batches for a meal on a rushed night.

Combine oil, margarine, onion and garlic in medium saucepan.
Saute on medium heat until onions and garlic are translucent.

Add your home-made sugo
(2011 - it was a good year!)

Add passata 

Bring to soft boil, then reduce heat and simmer...

I hope you enjoy our sauce as much as we do.  Until next time, I wish you a wonderful day filled with family, fun, friends and fantastic food.  B'Tayavon & Buon Appetito!