Every Wednesday, Food52's Senior Editor Kristen Miglore is unearthing recipes that are nothing short of genius. This week: the most famous tomato sauce on the internet, from Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking.
- Kristen
It was only a matter of time. The sauce was always there, seeping into every discussion of this whole genius recipe premise. It might even be the reason we hatched the column at all.
Because all you do is simmer tomatoes for 45 minutes with butter and an onion. The full, true tomato flavor is a revelation in itself -- as is finding out you don't need to cook in all those layers of garlic and herbs and whatnot to get there (and you might even be better off without them).
How fitting that this should come to us from Marcella Hazan -- who, with her husband and writing partner Victor, has been credited with making simple, good Italian food accessible to American cooks ever since the publication of her first cookbook in 1973.
Admittedly, this sauce won't be news to a lot of you. Many of our favorite bloggers already had beautiful epiphanies about it years ago. In fact, we could even play a game: Where were you when Obama was elected? ... When you heard Gourmet was folding? ... When you first tried the sauce?
My initiation came late. It was last August, and my CSA was heaving flats full of bursting yellow tomatoes on us. It was too much. It was glorious. And we're already coming up on that tomato tipping point again.
In a few months, we'll be giving the evil eye to $15/pound heirlooms shipped in from warmer climes -- but as of this moment, the farmers markets around here are fully armed with tomatoes in all colors and sizes. You could run through Union Square, pelting aggressive Greenpeace pamphleteers with warm, delicious rainbow pulp. Or you could leave me with my fantasies and gingerly gather up as many as you can, and turn them into sauce that tastes like pure summer, to stock your freezer and get you through gray months to come.
And to me that's the most exciting thing about the sauce. Most bloggers have zeroed in on the fact that Hazan's recipe is tailor-made for a 28-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes. It does make an excellent year-round sauce that way and is outrageously convenient. But fresh tomatoes are really just better.
Inevitably, they'll require one extra, rather satisfying step: peeling. There are a few ways you can attack this tomato prep, depending on whether you have a food mill, your disposition toward said food mill, and whether you feel like boiling water or not.
Food mill lovers:
1. Halve tomatoes and warm them briefly in a covered saucepan before passing through a food mill, leaving all the bits and scraps behind.
Food mill haters/abstainers:
2a. Boil the tomatoes for a minute, with an X cut in the bottom if you want to show off. Peel like a slippery banana. Chop rustically.
2b. Newly learned, via David Tanis via The Kitchn: Stick your tomatoes in the freezer. As they freeze, the water in the tomato's network of cells expands and bursts the cell walls -- terrible texture for a caprese salad or pico de gallo, but here they'll be getting broken down into sauce anyway, so that's okay. Then, as they thaw, they get slumpy and the skins slip off easily. No boiling and no food mills!
You then simmer away with the swirling butter and bobbing onion, till "the fat floats free from the tomato" -- which of course you should just stir back in. Then Hazan has you discard the onion, but I think you should actually eat it. Chopped up, it would make a fine relish for a grilled Italian sausage -- a Marcella-worthy hot dog onion sauce.
And the rest, as they say, is just gravy. There, I think I just cured your seasonal affective disorder.
Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan.
Serves 6.
- 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes
5 tablespoons butter
1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
Salt to taste
1 to 1 1/2 pound pasta
Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table
See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.
Want more genius recipes? Try Crook's Corner's Green Peach Salad or Eric Ripert's Crispy-Skinned Fish.
Got a genius recipe you'd like to share -- from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Please send it my way (and tell me what's so smart about it) at kristen@food52.com.
Photos by William Brinson (except for author photo of Marcella Hazan).
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kristen miglore
I'm an ex-economist, ex-Californian who moved to New York to work in food media in 2007. Dodgy career choices aside, I can't help but apply the rational tendencies of my former life to things like: recipe tweaking, digging up obscure facts about pizza, and deciding how many pastries to put in my purse for "later."
Some past articles from this author you'll love:
Anne Dimock's Straight-Up Rhubarb Pie
Daniel Patterson's Poached Scrambled Eggs
Rick Bayless' Chilied Tortilla Soup with Shredded Chard
70 Comments on Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter:
After reading all the rave reviews, we were very excited to try this recipe. We were fortunate enough to have locally grown San Marzano tomatoes, however, we were disappointed by the results. This recipe was only "good" at best - certainly not worthy of all the hype.
Hi. We made this recipe for years before discovering its simple secrets. The tomatoes must go through the fine blade of the food mill for best results. The onion should not be too big or impacts the flavor. And, most importantly, the sauce should be simmered at a reasonable pace. Occasionall bubbles in the simmer will not work. And, simmer it until it is quite thick, then, put in your wet pasta and a touch more pasta water if it is still too thick. The result is a wonderful, dense, very red film of tomato sauce on the pasta.
Lovely sauce---but it's all about the tomatoes. If fresh, they should be impeccable. Late summer/early fall tomatoes in northern New England have a lot of liquid and may take a bit longer to cook down to the proper consistency. (I used a combination of Opalka paste tomatoes and some heirlooms that needed using up.) To compensate for not having San Marzanos growing up the slopes of an Italian villa, I added a tablespoon of tomato paste and cooked the sauce 15 minutes longer. The result was delicious and almost helped me to forget that temperatures dropped into the forties last night (September 11) for the first time since early May.
I have been making this sauce for many years. I thought that what was "genius"about this recipe was the way you could transform a can of San Marazano tomatoes into an amazing sauce with this method. I have never used it to make sauce from scratch...too much added fat.
i made this today, it was fantastic! i only i wish i'd made twice as much! thanks for sharing it!
susan
So simple and oh so good! Great pick, Kristen!
great sauce, but an even fresher tasting one: big sautee pan, the bigger the better because you want it to reduce quickly so you don't lose any of that fresh tomato taste. glugs of olive oil. sautee slivers of garlic (lots) until just barely beginning to take on color. dump in lots of fresh tomatoes, skins on, diced (works with canned tomatoes in a pinch, but fresh is best). on high heat, simmer just until tomatoes collapse, reduce a bit and become saucy. during simmer, salt to taste and add a bit of sugar. it will be a sauce with small lumps of tomato in it. turn off heat, add handfuls of fresh, torn basil. if adding rosemary,add at beginning with tomatoes. now that's fresh.
great sauce, but an even fresher tasting one: big sautee pan, the bigger the better because you want it to reduce quickly so you don't lose any of that fresh tomato taste. glugs of olive oil. sautee slivers of garlic (lots) until just barely beginning to take on color. dump in lots of fresh tomatoes, skins on, diced (works with canned tomatoes in a pinch, but fresh is best). on high heat, simmer just until tomatoes collapse, reduce a bit and become saucy. during simmer, salt to taste and add a bit of sugar. it will be a sauce with small lumps of tomato in it. turn off heat, add handfuls of fresh, torn basil. if adding rosemary,add at beginning with tomatoes. now that's fresh.
Just wondering if you're supposed to use unsalted or salted butter. And what type of onion? White..vidalia...yellow...there are too many choices in the grocery store! Thanks!
sorry. just found the answer to my question on the "full recipe". thanks anyway to all! can't wait to try this. :-)
Has anyone tried making this using a can of san marzano? or would it require 2-28oz peeled whole tomatoes? thanks.
I cooked this up last night for dinner with whole wheat pasta and a salad. It was so simple, and so delightful. I brought leftovers to work for lunch today. Awww, such delicious pleasures! Grazie!
Ahhhhhh......One of my true favorites!!! Simple but amazing......
Thanks for the reminder! This is one of my favorites for all the reasons mentioned above. I will definitely be going to the farmer's market this weekend!
So ... butter = can this be successfully canned? Anyone? Anyone?
I love this sauce! I've been making it for years. I don't discard the onion though. I actually dice it BEFORE cooking and just leave it in. It's hard to believe so few ingredients have so much flavor. You're right, Kristin, it's genius!
Discard the onions? On a cold day, maybe. Most recently we chopped them up and added to pizzas when we used this treasure of a sauce for a pizza class. I've puréed them to add to a vinaigrette, added them to various pestos (with sun-dried tomatoes, killer!), spread them bruschetta-style over crostini, stored them chilled and added to salads. And those are just the uses that come most immediately to mind. Discard? I can barely say the word. Some instructions were meant to be thought beyond.
We have made the sauce since the first cook book. We make it all the time. But, only in the last few years did we learn that the sauce is best when quite thick. She tells you to cook it at a brisk simmer, which works well. We keep it at about "twenty of' on an electric stove until thick. Then, when you drop in slighly moist pasta from the boiling water with tongs. you get a result even more superior to other sauces.
During peak of tomato season, I roast the tomatoes quickly in hot oven (in lieu of boiling them) before running them through the food mill, then finish them per Ms. Hazan's recipe. I like to think the roasting adds a layer of toasted tomato flavor. Regardless, this sauce is a family favorite.
This recipe appeared also in Marcella's first book,The Classic Italian Cookbook. I came to this book in its sixth iteration around 1978, and it remains my favorite--hands down. Throw away the onion? Never. The cook always ate that in the kitchen!
Definitely don't let the onion go to waste! I need to make this again - soon!
made it yesterday. It is SO good that I sucked all the sauce off the onion halves before I threw them away!
You threw the onion away??? NOOOOOOOOOOO, it was soo delicious, just smooshed with some rice!
Yikes!
Sorry! It was supposed to read "(well--sauced) tongue in cheek" I seem to always battle iPhone spellchecker for the words that I need/want. No need ( which i just "corrected" from "Monopoly") in sounding like an illiterate troll. ;-)
This is my go-to, got-to-have-it sauce. I make it all the time. My favorite way to serve it is over rigatoni or mezzi rigatoni on a plate with creamed lima beans. Marcella's sauce is miraculous and the combination of the pasta next to the lima beans is delicious.
Anybody have any experience comparing this to a version with olive oil instead of butter?
I've been making a version of this sauce for years but never knew it was originally a recipe of Marcella Hazan's! I saute the onions and leave them in the sauce though. I never peel skins off tomatoes either, seems a waste of time to me;especially if in a sauce that I can whirl in a food processor. This is my daughter's favorite tomato sauce EVER.
I LOVE this sauce. I've been making it for the past few years and am blown away by it every single time. What a lovely post with great pictures!
*Double GASP* Kristen, This is simply BEYOND genius. Mindblowing, I fished out the onions into a bowl, smooshed them and added some cold Basmati rice, Can't adequately describe to you how much I enjoyed it! Thank you a thousand times!,
Gasp! Tomato sauce without garlic? Never! Are you sure that Marcell is Italian?well, I'll try it with onion. I can always sub ( or add?) my beloved garlic - which I will try in just about anything other than cereal (now there's an idea). Apologies to Marcella - this was meant as (well-saucer) tonue in cheek. ;-). This the the simplest, most usable genius recipe so far, for me. Great job, Kristen. Brava!
One great use for the onion I discovered last night: I was making meatballs to go with the sauce, and the tomato-braised onions tasted amazing chopped and tossed into the meat. The cooked onions gave the meat an extra sweetness and roundness.
Also: this sauce is incredible!
I found this in an Italian cookbook years ago and have been making this for almost 20 years. It never ceases to impress my guests and myself every time. Its so easy that we named it No Bones Pasta Sauce.
We just came home from vacation and it was the only thing I could make with my pantry last night. You can make it with canned chopped tomatoes in a pinch but fresh tomatoes elevates it to another level. I would agree..genius!
Just acquired some 'retired' (borderline mushy) Heirlooms from my local farm especially for this, Should make for a memorable Friday night supper!
I made this recipe during winter last year with some friends, and it completely turned our tomato sauce worlds upside down. So long to chopping herbs and sauteing aromatics in olive oil. This is the easiest and tastiest sauce ever! I was so thankful that my friends didn't want to eat the onion after it had finished cooking. I gobbled that whole thing right up and it was delish!
And what a great tip about freezing tomatoes before peeling. Genius!
I make this sauce all the time during tomato season, and freeze it (in jars) for the winter. A couple of summers back, I began oven roasting the tomatoes and then making this sauce. It's a nice alternative, a little richer, slightly more tomato-y, if that's possible.
Genius. Brilliant.
I make this sauce at least once a week. with a green salad, it makes a fantastic lazy sunday dinner. If I find myself without an onion in the house, I sub in a tablespoon of vodka and a teaspoon of onion powder. It's not as good as the fresh onion, but it is close. Let the butter do the heavy lifting.
http://wherethesideworkends.com/2011/01/10/simple-sunday-dinner/
I make this sauce at least once a week. With a green salad, it is the perfect lazy Sunday dinner. In a pinch, when I find myself without an onion in the house, I sub in an ounce of vodka and a tablespoon of onion powder. it isn't as good as the fresh onion, but it gets close.
I have made this sauce many times over the years...Wonderful
i made this for the first time a few months ago, and it has awakened a monster in my house. a rich, buttery, oniony, tomatoey monster.
I make a pizza sauce that's similar. I use several cloves of smashed garlic rather than the onion, and reduce it until it's quite thick. Whenever I teach this in a class, as soon as I get to the butter, I get looks of: Dude? (not a word I use often) Seriously, butter? One taste and they're addicts. The onion: seriously genius. Especially on a pizza.
I love this sauce and completely agree that it belongs in the genius category.
Love.
If I'm making this sauce with fresh tomatoes, do you think the tomatoes should be seeded? I guess I'm used to sauces that require that...but here it looks like you haven't done that. Any reasons for or against seeding?
Thanks!
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added 9 months agoYou know, I've never seeded them because Marcella doesn't. Unless you have some really burly tomatoes, I don't think the seeds should be too noticeable -- and you'd lose so much of the good juice trying to get them out. My verdict: don't seed. Anyone disagree?
Every year I make up two bushels of tomatoes from Eagle Bridge Farm in upstate New York. I pick the tomatoes myself, wash them well, core them, and cut them into four to six pieces depending on the size of the tomato. I have four 12-quart stockpots on the stove ready to go. I plop the tomatoes in and add some Malden Salt (I'm sure kosher would be fine) and a few glugs of olive oil. Then I cook the tomatoes over low heat for as long as it takes to get to a sauce-like consistency. I put them through an Italian tomato press that I got at William-Sonoma the year of the flood, let them cool, and freeze them in little bags in one cup increments. They lay nice and flat in the freezer. I make Marcella's "miracle" sauce all the time with just one little bag using either a small onion cut in half or half of a medium onion cut in half, and, of course, the butter. I really prefer the sauce smooth and without the seeds.
Marcella has to be one of the nicest and toughest ladies out there. I once had a facebook conversation (nicest lady) with her about branzino http://tinyurl.com/3s88znt and she was dead on right in her assessment and taught me how important it is to always keep learning. The fact that she is willing to take on molecular gastronomy has also been interesting to follow (hence toughest lady) I greatly admire and enjoy her passion and love of food.
Kristen is the Senior Editor of food52.
added 9 months agoI can't believe Marcella Hazan schooled you on Facebook. That is so cool.
Marcella Hazan. Facebook. "Tough." Love it.
I find that many of the best recipes are also the simplest. Love this sauce.
I chop the onion first and eat it with the sauce. DEEEELICIOUS.
Now I know what I'm making this weekend! Another great column, Kristen!
Loving this column and can't wait to make the sauce!
Love the "reverse blanching" technique from David Tanis. Aki and Alex, of Ideas in Food (http://blog.ideasinfood.com/ideas_in_food/), recommend doing this with asparagus: they get perfectly soft-crunchy, as if you blanch them, but you don't lose any of their wonderful flavor.
best. tomato. sauce. ever. period.
I've been making this sauce since a friend gave me a paperback Marcella cookbook -- predating "Essentials" -- that listed the recipe as Tomato Sauce No. 3 and called for a full stick of butter. Spectacularly, astonishingly, crave-inducingly good.
i have to say - last year, i packed away tons of tomatoes int he freezer, delighted at the way the skin would peel off. In the summer heat, sliding the skin from frozen tomatoes is great. The cold tomatoes are even a bit of a relief from the heat. But ... by january ... peeling frozen tomatoes was icy, icy torture on a cold night. never again!
Great recipe, must try!!! I love the use of butter in the sauce.
Since a lot of us don't have scales to weigh the tomatoes, a 28 oz. can is 3 1/2 cups of the peeled & chopped tomatoes. I worked this out when recording one of my recipes.
I met Marcella Hazan at the CIA when she was stomping for her latest book Essentials of Italian Cooking in 1992. (She made an artichoke dish from the cookbook). I have been making this sauce for many years and had no idea that it was from that same cookbook. It is a recipe that has become an urban legend!
I like to think of this as the little black dress of pasta sauces - simple, sophisticated and versatile. A classic.
an apt description!
Love!!!
This is one of my favorite sauces! Great choice!
Peeling tomatoes is my favorite kitchen activity, sans food mill, and definitely with the X cut into the bottom. I've made a heartier sauce from this book, but not this one. I'll have to try it!
A) Yes! Love this sauce. I love that the most perfect tomato sauce uses butter instead of olive oil, how satisfying :). B) Love your game, I could rattle the three locations off right now. C) Love the contents of the freezer!
Yum! We can loads of sauce, salsa and ranchero every summer - I have never tried butter and onion though - always garlic and olive oil! And I am lazy - I don't peel the tomatoes for sauce I just motorboat them into submission with my immersion blender ... so now I need to try it this way!!!
*GASP*... tomatoes, butter & a bisected onion.. Unbelievable..Totally Genius!!
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