The Red Sauce

So lets talk sauce. All these years I've made and taught the same tomato sauce. It is simple and flavorful but it's heavy. It's made with a half bottle of red wine, sugar and soda. Anna's sauce is fresh, not only because of Marc's vine ripened tomatoes but also because she doesn't use a lot of ingredients. It's very basic allowing the tomatoes to shine through. If you are a person who has to has exact proportions, you will not enjoy this recipe because every ingredient varies depending on the time of year that the tomatoes were harvested and their acid content. 

After the tomatoes are cooked down and ready to can, Anna will take 6-8 cups of the stewed tomatoes to make a sauce. She purees them in a food processor first. She then begins cooking the sauce by sautéing 1/2 of a small onion. (For those who need a measurement -try using about 1/3 cup of medium diced onions.) She then uses 2 large cloves of garlic. Anna almost always uses a garlic press but if you don't have one try mincing then crushing the garlic with a knife. She uses about 1/2 cup of olive oil to sauté the onion and garlic. This is a very slow sauté. It takes a good 20-30 minutes on very low heat to gently cook the vegetables until the onions are translucent. Anna then adds about 2 splashes of white wine to the veggies and cooks them a little longer. She adds a pinch of red pepper flakes and the pureed tomatoes and cooks the sauce down until the liquid is reduced and the sauce is slightly thickened. She will add one whole carrot if the sauce isn't    sweet enough and a few sprigs of sage for depth of flavor. She serves this sauce with gnocchi, spaghetti noodles or anything that might need a red sauce. It's so fresh and light you won't believe it until you try it! I can't wait to make it when I get back home!