Home made pasta sauce is so much better than the bottled stuff any day. The main thing for a good pasta sauce is to have really good ripe tomatoes. The recipe otherwise has very few ingredients and a couple of spices. That is all it takes to make a good pasta sauce. You can substitute canned tomatoes for fresh ones, but we will be using fresh tomatoes today for this recipe.
The tomatoes need to be peeled, de-seeded and juiced before making the sauce. So lets get cooking guys…..
Boil water in a pan and drop in the ripe tomatoes in boiling water. Boil for half a minute to a minute until the skin of the tomato cracks like the picture shown below. Blanching the tomatoes in hot water helps in peeling the skin easily.
Peel the tomato skin and cut the tomato into half. Remove the seeds and let the juices through a strainer / colander. We will be using the juice later.
After peeling and removing the seeds, you will be left with tomato meat and tomato juice. Discard the skin and the seeds.
Puree the tomatoes in a food processor. Set aside.
You just made home made tomato pulp. Congrats.
Lets move on to making the pasta sauce.
Heat olive oil in a pan and add in 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and one finely chopped onion. Add in a teaspoon of dried thyme.
Cook the onions until soft and translucent. About 3-4 minutes in medium flame. Add in the tomato puree along with the strained juices.
There is a little Italian Nonna’s trick while making tomato sauce for pasta. Its adding a teaspoon of sugar. It really rounds out the flavor. So add a teaspoon of sugar. Add in freshly ground pepper and salt.
Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes in medium flame until a thick sauce forms.
Switch off the flame and tear some fresh basil leaves and add it to the pasta sauce.
Your pasta sauce is now ready. You can store this sauce for up to a week in the refrigerator.
Putting together pasta and sauce:
Adding pasta sauce on cooked pasta and serving as is without making the sauce adhere to the pasta is a sin. The sauce should nicely coat the pasta and should always be cooked briefly so the pasta absorbs the flavor of the sauce. This little extra step goes a long way.
Add some cooked pasta in a pan and set the stove on medium heat. Add in some of the tomato sauce and a teaspoon of olive oil. Briefly saute the mixture for a minute. The sauce needs to adhere and coat the pasta. If the pasta is too dry, add in some drained leftover pasta water and cook till desired consistency.
Remove off heat. Serve the pasta with some grated parmesan cheese or any aged cheese of your choice. Serve hot.
Enjoy your pasta. Buon appetito.
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium onion
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 kilogram ripe tomatoes or two – 28 ounce canned peeled tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon pepper
- 5-6 fresh basil leaves
- Boil water in a pan and drop the ripe tomatoes in the boiling water. Boil for half a minute to a minute. Peel the tomato skin and cut the tomato into half. Remove the seeds and let the juices through a strainer / colander. We will be using the juice later.
- Puree the tomatoes in a food processor. Set aside.
- Heat olive oil in a pan and add in 3-4 cloves of minced garlic and one finely chopped onion. Add in a teaspoon of dried thyme.
- Cook the onions until soft and translucent. About 3-4 minutes in medium flame. Add in the tomato puree along with the strained juices.
- Add a teaspoon of sugar. Add in freshly ground pepper and salt.
- Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes in medium flame until a thick sauce forms.
- Switch off the flame and tear some fresh basil leaves and add it to the pasta sauce.
- Pasta sauce is now ready. You can store this sauce for up to a week in the refrigerator.