Tomato Sauce Sicilian

By á-7571

A big pan of tomato sauce is the crimson lifeblood of Italian cooking. Find a recipe that works for your household and steadily spin it out all week. Rachel Roddy

Ingredients

• 100 ml olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled, split but whole
• 750 g fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
• A pinch of salt
• A pinch of dried chilli flakes
• 2 x 800g tins of plum tomatoes in juice (ideally san marzano)
• Sugar, to taste

Details

Adapted from theguardian.com

Preparation

Step 1

1 In a large, heavy-based pan, over a medium-low flame, warm half the olive oil and the garlic you have peeled and crushed with the back of a knife so it splits but remains whole. Let the garlic fry gently for a few minutes until it is pale gold and fragrant – it mustn’t brown or it will taste bitter. You can now remove the garlic if you like.

2 Add the fresh tomatoes and a good pinch of both salt and dried chilli flakes. Let the pan simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

3 Use scissors to roughly chop the tomatoes in their tins, then tip them into the pan along with the rest of the olive oil. Reduce the flame to very low and let the sauce simmer gently, uncovered, for 45 minutes, squashing the tomatoes against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon from time to time.

4 Take the pan off the heat, taste and adjust seasoning (if the sauce seems a bit sharp, you can add a teaspoon or so of sugar). If you like a smoother sauce, pass it through a food mill, or blend in short, cautious blasts with a hand blender (too fast and it will turn into a pinky foam.)