Tomato Sauce

Recipe Name: Tomato Sauce

Story:
"It brings back so many great memories that I had with Julie in Venice!  She was at cooking school and I was at the mosaic school.  One day I took the water taxi to join her and Enrica Rocca …. It was at the end of the cooking day and waiting for me to taste and savor was the risotto with wild mushrooms!  It was heavenly.  And, once home Julie made this recipe often.  Always good.

Also, once home and for several years, Julie made the homemade tomato sauce!  I don’t know how she did it in her small kitchen!  I have a feeling the dogs had a lot to lick up!" - Sheila

Years you've been making it: Since 2009

Author / Creator: Enrica Rocca

Submitted by: Julie

Ingredients:
20 mils extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves whole
500gr. Cherry tomatoes or baby plum tomatoes whole and washed
1 small bunch of fresh basil leaves
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a small frying pan, place the olive oil and garlic and let the garlic infuse with the oil at a very low temperature for as long as you can.

As soon as the garlic becomes brown (don’t let it burn as burned garlic gives a very bitter flavour to the sauce) add all the tomatoes, a bit of salt and close the pan with a lid.

Increase lightly the temperature and let the tomatoes explode which will take approx 10 min. Time will vary depending on the temperature.

Once all the tomatoes are exploded, mash them with a hand potato masher or a wooden spoon.

Now you will have a lot of liquid in the pan, more in the winter when the tomatoes are less ripe.

Keeping the lid off will let the water evaporate till you reach a thick consistency.

Add only at the end the basil as otherwise a lot of the flavour will evaporate.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes:

If you wish to use tomato sauce to dress a stuffed pasta (ravioli, tortellini..) it’s better to avoid putting basil, as basil has a very strong flavour, and add some crème fraiche or mascarpone or panna to take off a little bit of acidity that tomatoes have and doesn’t cover the flavour of the pasta filling.