I want to try and make a homemade red sauce

I'm reposting this from a while back. This is a real simple red sauce my fiancee makes that is great. You just use a few good ingredients and let stuff simmer for 4 hours.

Italian Tomato Sauce Recipe adapted from Frankie’s 457 Cookbook

Makes 3 quarts

You will need:
~ 1 cup olive oil
~ 13 whole cloves garlic peeled
~ 4 28-ounce can Italian Tomatoes (don’t skimp on this)
~ a large pinch of red pepper flakes
~ 2 teaspoons sea salt

First, combine garlic and oil in a large deep saucepan. Cook for 10 minutes on medium-low stirring every few minutes. Keep cooking until garlic has a light brown color – don’t burn the garlic.

Pour tomatoes (including sauce) in a large bowl and crush each tomato by hand. Please please please wear an apron. These guys are messy. While crushing tomatoes, make sure to pull out the hard stem from each tomato.

When garlic is done, add red pepper flakes and cook for about 30 seconds. Then add tomatoes, salt and mix thoroughly. Increase the heat to medium until you have a gentle simmer. Cook for 4 hours stirring occasionally.

Once the sauce is done cooking, add salt if needed. Let the sauce sit in the fridge or freezer for at least 4 days. If you put it in the freezer, you can keep it for a few months.

maybe sautee a little onion with the garlic. add a bay leaf or 2 to cut the acidity

now we're talking

Its a recipie you can play with. The Missus usually makes it and she adheres to the directions. If I would do it, I would almost certainly add oregano and red wine, maybe a little fresh basil.

Posted this a while back. Just 86 the meat.


8 roma tomatoes
2-3 tbsp tomato paste
2 medium yellow onions
3-4 stalks of celery
4 carrots finely chopped
1 clove of garlic
1 1/2 cups of chicken broth
1 cup of red wine (Usually just a pinot or Cab)
1.5 lbs of 85/15 ground meat
pinch of red chilli flake
a handful of sweet basil chopped fine kosher salt and pepper in layers to taste

I usually begin by cutting all veg up first and have my ingredients at the ready before hand so that I can quite easily cook without having to scramble all over the place.

After you're prepped up, begin by browning your meat in your pot of choice with a little salt and pepper, and on another burner have some water going in another pot with some ice water in the sink. Take your tomatoes and make an X with your knife at the top of the tomatoes just enough to break the skin and that's it. Once the water begins to boil, kill the fire and drop the tomatoes in. When you see the top of the tomatoes where you made the X begin to peal a bit, usually 30 sec to a minute or so, take them out and place in the ice bath in your sink until they're submerged to stop the cooking process. Once cooled, take them out and peal the skin from the tomatoes over your ice bath and place on cutting board. Once all are pealed, begin to do a rough chop to them to put in a food processor or blender if you like, or if you don't have either, just chop as fine as you can and place it all in a bowl to be added shortly.

Now, remove your browned meat and place on the side and in the fridge once roughly at room temp later.

Add your aeromatics to your drippings at the bottom of the pot and salt and pepper. Add more oil if needed, and beginning with the onions, carrots, celery, a pinch of red pepper flake, and begin to cook down on med. Roughly half way through cooking I'll add my garlic and basil. Finish cooking and stirring until the onions are translucent and everything is coming together nicely and add a TBSP or 2 more of oil if needed and get up to temp in pot. Add your tomato paste and brown it in the oil and with the rest of your ingredients for 10-20 minutes or so until it becomes more red brown in color and add a little salt and pepper. I don't really have a set time for this, just look for a more red brown color. Deglaze with your red wine and add your tomatoes in with chicken broth, and salt and pepper to taste or a little under becuase you're going to reduce this and can always add later. Get up to a simmer and let it do it's thing for as long as possible. I'll let mine roll on the lowest setting possible covered for 2 or 3 hours and then uncover it for another hour or so in order to reduce. TASTE IT FIRST and make sure it has the right amount of salt you're looking for, and then add your meat and bring up to a simmer. Let go for a few minutes or so, until you've gotten the meat hot and kill it. Ready to eat. Takes a bit, but it's the difference maker IMO.

* Don't forget to salt your pasta water like the sea when cooking your pasta. It's the only chance you have to season the pasta.

* If you've over reduced your sauce, use a little pasta water to add to your sauce and most times I'll take a laddle or so and do it anyway.

* Take your pasta and dump into your sauce, remove and plate. Take your sauce and laddle on top of the pasta and eat.

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