My Simple House Tomato Sauce

Here is my riff off of the famous Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce. She uses onion and butter, but I add a few tasty bits to kick it up a notch. Very simple and easy and oh, so fantastic.

I am appalled by the prices of some of the fancier tomato sauces in the grocery today. As much as $6-9 for 24 oz. This makes almost three times that amount for the same price, and is so much more fresh. And you know what's in it - only the best!

I was inspired to make this after eating at Gia Batta Alimentari in Tivoli, NY. Owned and operated by descendants of the Buitoni family, famous for their pasta, they serve the very best fettuccini with red sauce I have ever had, either here or in Italy. This comes close to a high fidelity reverse engineering of their sauce, I'd say.

4 Tbsp butter plus 1 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tbsp favorite fresh aromatic herbs such as thyme or oregano (I also use a bit of rosemary), minced

Dash crushed red pepper flakes, to taste

1 28 oz can crushed fire roasted tomatoes (I used Trader Joe’s)

1 28 oz can whole tomatoes

1/2 can (~2 Tbsp) tomato paste

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 Tbsp anchovy paste (or 2 fillets, crushed)

2 Tbsp brown sugar ( I used Trader Joe’s Turbinado)

1/2 tsp Kosher salt

Melt the butter in the oil in a medium stew pot. Add the onion and cook about 10 minutes, stirring often. I mean often - maybe every 1-2 minutes. Allow the onions to soften and caramelize.

Add the garlic, herbs, and pepper flakes and cook another 1-2 minutes.

Now add the crushed tomatoes, and the whole tomatoes. I often use kitchen scissors to cut up the whole tomatoes in their can, but have also used my hand to smush the tomatoes as I transfer to the pot - a very easy (but fun) ordeal. Here I just dumped them in and broke them apart while cooking.

Add the wine, anchovies, sugar and salt. Bring the mixture to a very gentle boil, and then lower the heat to the very lowest simmer possible on your stove.

Simmer for about two hours, stirring and tasting very regularly - every 20 minutes or so.

Makes about 64 oz sauce - probably enough for two meals.

The very best Chicken Parmigiana and fettuccini at Gia Batta

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