Make Ahead

Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce + Spice

by:
May  7, 2019
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Photo by gigi
  • Prep time 10 hours
  • Cook time 50 minutes
  • Serves 4
Author Notes

I adapted Marcella Hazan's famous Tomato/Onion/Butter sauce. The recipe is pretty perfect already, but I decided to add two dried Mexican Pequin chili peppers and three cloves of garlic, and used canned diced tomatoes from the pantry.

Pequin peppers are tiny and cute, but pack a lot of bite – up to five times hotter than a jalapeno, they say! But fear not – using just one pepper gives this sauce a surprisingly even heat.

The final result: A punch of sweet and savory heat, with a rich, creamy flavor (but not heavy). Think of it as a velvet-clad Arrabbiata!

gigi

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 28 ounces Canned Diced Tomatoes
  • 5 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
  • 1 Medium Onion (Halved)
  • 1 teaspoon Crushed Pequin Pepper Flakes (or any dried red pepper flakes/seeds, to taste)
  • 3 Garlic Cloves (Halved)
  • 1 tablespoon Salt (or to taste)
Directions
  1. 1. Warm a dutch oven (or saucepan) and add the butter.
  2. 2. As the butter melts, add the onion halves (pull apart some of the layers for more aromatics) and allow them to cook together. Add the halved garlic cloves as the butter continues to melt.
  3. 3. Once the butter is fully melted and the aromatics soften, add tomatoes with their juices. Season early with approximately ½-1 tbs. of salt (or to taste) of kosher salt.
  4. 4. Crush the dried pepper and add both the flakes and seeds.
  5. 5. Cover and allow combined ingredients to cook on high for 5-7 minutes. Bring the flame down once there is a slight boil. Continue to simmer for 45 minutes.

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