Make Easy All-Purpose Tomato Sauce with just few key ingredients for pasta, pizza, or as a spread on your sandwich/wrap.

There is something magical about stirring an aromatic pot with tomatoes over a stove-top and watching simple ingredients transform into a beautiful tomato sauce. I love the fact that I can adjust the seasonings depending on what I have on hand as well as the consistency for my pasta & pizza needs. I have been tinkering with this recipe for a while to give you exact measurements but after multiple tries, I have finally accepted that no two tomato sauce is ever going to taste the exact same.

For this Easy All-Purpose Tomato Sauce, I used canned tomatoes (crushed). I tried everything from San Marzano to regular store-brand tomatoes and the results were slightly varied because not all canned tomatoes are created equal. The type and the region where tomatoes are grown, ingredients used for processing and canning, and acidity/sweetness of canned tomatoes are few reasons why you may find variations.

Enjoy this short video on how to make this easy, all-purpose tomato sauce. Below I have shared a loose recipe to follow through along with few suggestions/tips to make this easy all-purpose tomato sauce truly yours!

Easy All-Purpose Tomato Sauce

makes about 2-2.5 cups

Ingredients
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon fresh herbs, such as parsley, rosemary, oregano, basil
2-3 chili peppers, chopped (optional but I like mine little spicy)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Saute chopped onion for a couple of minutes and stir in garlic. Do not brown onion or garlic but cook just until soft.

2. Add crushed tomatoes to the skillet and stir everything. Add chopped herbs and chili peppers if using. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

3. Let the sauce simmer for 30-35 minutes until it’s thick and almost jammy. Stir the sauce in between and reduce the heat to low if needed. If you notice sauce sticking to the pan, add a couple tablespoon of water and lower the heat.

4. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

5. Let the sauce cool down and use as needed for pasta, pizza, sandwich. Store it covered in an airtight container for up to 10 days.

Notes:

• Instead of crushed tomatoes, you may use whole, diced, or stewed tomatoes. Quickly puree them in a blender to crush it.

• You can pick and choose seasonings/herbs of your choice. I personally like adding fresh parsley, oregano, basil. Dried herbs can be added in lieu of fresh herbs if that’s what you have on hand. Dried herbs are more concentrated than fresh ones, so you will need 1 teaspoon of dried herbs if the recipe calls for 1 tablespoon fresh herbs.

• Chili pepper is not very common in tomato sauce but I like my sauce on the spicy side so I add fresh chili pepper, crushed red chili, or my homemade fermented sriracha when I have it. My favorite is fermented sriracha because it adds a depth of flavor and little funk!!!

• If you find your tomatoes to be acidic, add a pinch of sugar to help mellow it out. I haven’t personally tried it but adding 1/4 teaspoon baking soda per 1 cup of tomato sauce helps neutralize the acidity.

• I like the sauce on a thick, jammy side but you can loosen the consistency with little water or shorten the cook time to 20-25 minutes if you want a slightly thin tomato sauce.

Enjoy it on a toast with some micro greens

it’s also lovely on a pizza

 

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A post shared by DIXYA, Registered Dietitian (@foodpleasurehealth) on Apr 5, 2020 at 6:54pm PDT