How to make basic tomato sauce

How to make basic tomato sauce, on the stove or slow cooker. Classic recipe to learn how to make basic tomato sauce at home. The traditional family recipe. We used to do this sauce at the farm of my grandparents when I was young so it is a nice throwback to my childhood 🙂

During the summer I shared on Instagram and Facebook huge tomato harvests. I got lots of them in a short period of time so I had to make something to preserve them. So I thought what is decided to make canned tomato sauce.

I have to say that it is an easy recipe but needs some time to get the best tomato sauce flavour. I can promise it is worth it. The flavour of homemade tomato can change a simple pasta dish to make it amazing.

Adding some onion and paprika makes the difference to this sauce. If want to make it a little bit sweeter you can add a couple of dates to the sauce when you add the tomatoes. Dated will reduce the acidity of tomatoes.

I am sure you are going to love this recipe.

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How to make basic tomato sauce

Recipe by Enara ParraCourse: SauceCuisine: MediterraneanDifficulty: Easy

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

2

hours 

20

minutes

With these ingredients I got for 3 medium size cans.

Ingredients

• 3 kg tomatoes

• 1 large green paprika, chopped

• 1 onion, chopped

• 2 garlic cloves

• 3 tablespoon olive oil

• Salt

• Optional: 2 dates (if you to balance tomato sauce acidity)

Directions

• Heat the oil in a large pot over medium heat and sauté the onion, paprika and garlic. Around 5 minutes.
• Add chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for 2 hours. It can take longer if your tomatoes have lots of water.
• Place the food mill over a pot. Ladle the tomato sauce into the food mill and churn away. Discard the skins left in the food mill.
• Bring the sauce back to the pot and simmer until it thickens a little bit more.
• SLOW COOKER version
• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and sauté the onion, paprika and garlic. Around 5 minutes. Transfer to the slow cooker.
• Add chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper.
• Cover with the lid and cook for 4 hours on HIGH.
• Place the food mill over a pot. Ladle the tomato sauce into the food mill and churn away. Discard the skins left in the food mill.
• Bring the sauce back to the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 4 hours (with NO lid on). This will thicken the sauce.

Notes

• Preserving option 1: You can keep it in the fridge for max 1 week.
• Preserve option 2: Frozen in freezer bags. Really handy and quick.
• Preserve option 3: Canning. (I will write a post about it)

Recipe ideas to use this tomato sauce?