Quick Tomato Sauce
For Pasta, Pizza or With Meats and Seafood
- Servings: Makes about 2 cups of finished sauce.
There are many different types of tomato sauces but sometimes we want one that's quick to make without sacrificing dense tomato flavor and without having to conjure up someone's Italian grandmother.
Use this sauce when making pizza with a store or pizza shop dough instead of one from a jar and for the extra 20 minutes it takes to make it, you'll have a significantly better result. Spoon a little of this sauce on baked cod or over steamed green beans and ordinary ingredients will become special. And on pasta it's a natural.
I like this best when it's made with a box of Pomi chopped tomatoes. Each box is 750 ml, or 26.5 oz. The tomatoes are imported from Italy, chopped to a perfect and uniform sauce size, and has just enough juice so you can simply open the box and pour it entirely into a saucepan. The box has essentially the same shelf-life as a can.
I use the food processor to chop the garlic as done quickly plus the blades produce a very fine mince. Besides, in the time it takes to wash the food processor afterwards is less than it takes to mince the garlic by hand.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, finely minced
- One 28 oz. can or 26.5 oz. box of chopped tomatoes; Pomi chopped tomatoes are perfect
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Pinch red pepper flakes
- Black pepper
- Generous pinch dry oregano
Directions
- In a medium saucepan or sauté pan, place the olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil glistens, add the minced garlic, salt, several grinds of black pepper, and red pepper flakes and stir. When the garlic is fragrant -- don't let it brown -- in about 30 seconds, add the tomatoes and their juice. Stir to combine.
- Add the oregano.
- Bring the tomatoes to a robust simmer and reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- When enough of the juices have cooked off so that the sauce has combined and reduced to the thickness you want, taste and adjust for salt and other seasonings.
- If using on pizza, you may want to reduce the sauce further so that it's thick enough to be a topping.
