Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions served over Spaghetti with a Chopped Salad

I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen's blog. To be honest, I was mostly intrigued. It seemed too good to be true. Too simple. But I loved it!

My maternal grandpa was 100% Italian. It makes me feel cool. I wish I was more Italian. I love Italians. My mom always made a HUGE pot of what we called "spaghetti sauce". I think it is something I will never be able to make the same. She always puts meatballs, ribs and sausage in it, seriously amazing. When I read Smitten Kitchen's recipe, it reminded me of my mom's tomato sauce because I believe she also put an entire onion in it (instead of chopping it up). Although, I am pretty sure I used to think it was a hard-boiled egg. But maybe there were both?

One thing I do know for sure, is my mom would cook the sauce for like an entire day. This is something I am trying to do more, but hardly ever do with anything I make. Mostly because Scot is too hungry to wait. Yeah, it is his fault.

Tonight I was gone again, so Scot started this (it is simple, you just throw three ingredients in a pot). I have decided there are three things in the recipe that make it really good: (1) the onion left whole, (2) the quality of the whole tomatoes, we used an organic brand with no added gibble gobble, and (3) you need to cook the tomatoes down for at least an hour. I think it would get even better if you did it for longer. I also think this recipe needs to be doubled (maybe 1.5'ed) for 1 lb. of pasta. I actually intended to double it to have some for tomorrow's eggplant parm, but forgot to mention that to Scot. It is ok though, it will be nice to try it again tomorrow night.

before

after

Result: I thoroughly enjoyed this sauce. It is so clean. I make marinara sauces all the time. But I never do the three things mentioned above. I have this one pasta that I make all the time...a simple tomato sauce with green olives and sometimes canned tuna. I think you all just unsubscribed, but then you forgot that I love brines. I invented the recipe when we were living in Switzerland, where it costs $400 for a chicken breast. But, I really like it! I am definitely going to use this new sauce for the green olive version.

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions

from Smitten Kitchen

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)

5 tablespoons (70 grams)

unsalted butter 1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved

Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you didn’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

Serve with spaghetti, with or without grated parmesan cheese to pass. Serves 4 as a main course; barely makes enough sauce to lightly coat most of a pound of spaghetti.

Printable Version

We had a chopped salad with it. It was cucumbers, red/green peppers, carrots, celery, red onions and lettuce. I had some leftover "homemade" ranch, so we used that. Tomorrow we will do an Italian chopped salad. I like rabbit food.