Tomato sauce is one of the easiest things to make. Use either canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, or a combination of the two (my favorite). But if you use fresh, definitely only use nice, juicy, red tomatoes. If it’s the middle of winter, you’d probably do best to just use good-quality canned tomatoes.

My favorite brands of canned tomatoes: La Valle (imported from Italy), and Muir Glen (from California).

There are basically five steps to making tomato sauce.

The 5-Step Method:

1. Simmer

First, open up the tomato cans and pour them into a large skillet. If you’re using fresh tomatoes, chop them coarsely and throw them in too. No need to peel or seed them, as those parts will be removed later in the food mill. If you don’t have a food mill, do peel and seed the tomatoes.

Bring it up to a boil, and simmer about 1/2 hour, to break down the tomatoes a bit and make them easier to purée.

2. Purée

Hopefully you have a food mill – it’s a great thing to have for smooth tomato sauces and silky puréed tomatoes. If so, pass the sauce through the mill, in batches, to remove the seeds and skins. If no food mill is available, purée it all in a food processor. It won’t be quite as smooth and the seeds will give off a slight bitter taste, but the sauce will still be good.

3. Sauté (Aromatics)

To deepen the flavor of your juicy tomato purée, you’ll need some nice aromatics. Onions and garlic for sure, and maybe some carrots and celery.  Perhaps a bit of pancetta, to add some pork flavor.

Heat some olive oil in your clean skillet, over medium heat. When the oil’s hot, add the onion and garlic and cook until the onion is softened and translucent – don’t let it brown. If you’re using pancetta, use less olive oil, and let the pancetta render before adding the onions and garlic. Add carrots and celery, if using, with the 0nion, and again, no color.

Note – you already pureed the sauce, so how big you cut your aromatics will be how big they’ll be in the sauce. For a nice smooth sauce, take your time and finely mince the onions and other vegetables. If you’re cooking rustic, this won’t matter so much.

4. Reduce

You have your tomato purée ready to go, but it’s so watery! Well of coarse, tomatoes have a high water content. So we need to get rid of that excess water so that the sauce will thicken up, and will be able to coat a pasta. Or fish, or meatballs, or whatever the sauce will be used for.

Return the tomato purée to the skillet with the now fragrant-smelling aromatics. Crank the heat up, bring it to a boil, then lower heat to a steady simmer, and let it go until the purée reduces to sauce consistency. This will take 10-30 minutes, depending on how much sauce you’re making and how fast your simmer. (Give it a spirited simmer, but don’t boil at all).

5. Herbify

You don’t need fresh herbs for tomato sauce, but they certainly go a long way to complement the flavor of the tomatoes, and give that great taste of freshness to the sauce. Thyme and oregano are great for tomato sauces. I like to use both; if you can only find one or the other though, that’s fine too. Add the herbs right before your sauce is finished. You don’t want to cook out the delicate flavor of the herbs as the sauce is reducing.

There you have it: Very easy, no? I like to make big ol’ batches of tomato sauce, from 6-pound cans of tomatoes. That will yield a little more than two quarts of sauce. It keeps for at least a week in the fridge.

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