Jammy Tomato-Anchovy Sauce From Phyllis Grant

@Kristen, my family loved this sauce, especially my spouse. He kept thanking me for making this sauce. I made it with spaghetti and ground beef. I had run out of dinner ideas and I thought let me make this. Super successful. Thank you for sharing this.

I appreciate all the prior reviewers comments. I love this sauce. My FOFME ( fear of farmer's market ending) kicked in yesterday and I came home with 10 # of lovely Roma tomatoes and made a huge batch of this recipe to get us through the inevitable tasteless tomato season that descends upon the Midwest. Followed the recipe with the addition of diced red tomatoes and a bit of shredded carrot. The balsamic and anchovies are key to this base sauce. I find it works well with pasta by itself or can be a nice starter for a meat gravy.

I made this twice now and really love it. I’ve used it for chicken Parmesan and to add to other dishes that use tomato sauces but it really shines best straight on pasta like in my chicken Parmesan that I serve over thin spaghetti with this sauce on top. It is very flavorful and clean. Don’t understand the folks who say it tastes like jarred sauce. I totally disagree, but perhaps my palate is not as sophisticated.

This is my favorite sauce to make right now, especially while working from home. Throw everything into my dutch oven at lunch, and let it simmer till dinner time. Not only is this an easy-peasy recipe to make, it will also fill your home with a delicious smell. This is the dish I use to convert people to love anchovies. When serving, I usually don't tell people there are anchovies in it to add a bit of a surprise. I recommend having a nice red wine with this meal.

This is my favorite sauce to make right now, especially while working from home. Throw everything into my dutch oven at lunch, and let it simmer till dinner time. Not only is this an easy-peasy recipe to make, it will also fill your home with a delicious smell. This is the dish I use to convert people to love anchovies. When serving, I usually don't tell people there are anchovies in it to add a bit of a surprise. I recommend having a nice red wine with this meal.

I enjoyed the video and the interview with Phyllis. The sauce is not what I expected but I like it. It is time consuming to make and much sweeter and acidic than a typical Italian sauce. I made it exactly as directed and I cannot stop tasting it from the pot! Looking forward to trying it on bread and pasta. Also, I read the book and tried the anchovy dressing for avocados which is delicious. I suggest reading the book reviews before you purchase the book which includes a short, brutally honest memoir with recipes in the back.

Love this sauce on polenta...I like it with creamy, thin polenta and topping with Parmesan.

First, could we PLEASE ban the word jammy unless it is referring to actual jam? It is such a cliche at this point. Second, this is a really great, versatile recipe, it's in my rotation now, despite having such a fussy list of ingredients. And third, it makes a hell of mess when you're cooking it. Definitely get a splatter guard.

I made this sauce as directed (except for cutting the amount of EVOO in half) and it was amazingly delicious! It is "jammy": sweet, tart, and thick. The only way I've used it is spreading it on slices of toasted baguette and then sprinkling a bit of goat cheese and fresh basil on top--a great hors d'oeuvre or light lunch that really showcases the sauce's intense flavor. I will definitely be making this again.

This sauce is amazing! I made a huge batch, cooked it all day in my largest Dutch Oven then froze it. Not only is it good with pasta but it makes a great pizza sauce.

I will use your recipe, that is, the ingredient list and will make it the opposite way.... quick cooking it in the pan , high heat for fast reduction. I do all my sauces that way and they come out delicious . Aways leave time to rest though before using, 10/15 minutes max.

I have very mixed feelings about this sauce. On one hand, it's undeniably tasty. On the other, though, it's really no better than my normal go-to tomato sauce, and it's about twice as complicated, and takes more than three times as long to make. As a result, I just can't recommend this recipe to anyone, even though I enjoyed it. Here are my insights on the components, broken down for ease of comparison:

- Using canned tomatoes, preferably San Marzano: Absolutely a win; I recommend doing this for every tomato sauce you make of this style. Canned tomatoes have more consistency than fresh, unless you have a garden or a good farmer's market, and San Marzano is a very solid brand.
- Red wine and oil-packed anchovies: Also a clear win, and worth doing for basically every tomato sauce of this style you make.
- Three cloves of garlic: This was not nearly enough garlic for a sauce this hardy. I doubled the garlic, and the sauce was still on the very weak side of appropriately seasoned. For a sauce cooked this long, with as robust flavors as this one has, use way more garlic than this recipe is suggesting. Also, forget the microplane – just mince it like usual. You get nothing from microplaning it in a sauce that cookes this long.
- Using a balsamic reduction: This is an absolute waste. You taste *none* of the complexities of a good balsamic reduction in the finished sauce, and making a balsamic reduction is such a pain that I have no idea why you'd bother doing it for a dish you can't even taste the result in. It is absolutely worth adding a little balsamic vinegar, but just add a dash of straight balsamic to the simmering sauce, and leave out the white wine vingear in exchange. The brown sugar is this recipe provides the caramel flavor that the reduction could have provided anyway. And speaking of which...
Brown sugar: Absolutely do include this. Using a little bit of sugar (or a carrot) to take the edge off of canned tomatoes is an old and well-known trick, but the little bit of molasses-y flavor that brown sugar brings to the equation makes it a worthwhile substitute for white sugar, especially since it doesn't add any prep time at all to make the switch.
- Lemon zest: This is worthwhile, but not deal-breaking if you don't have it. The lemon zest does help to brighten up the sauce, but it does so quite subtly – I'm not really sure if the result is worth getting out a microplane for. If you have dried lemon zest (available in the spice isle), this is a good addition, and since I regularly keep dried lemon zest in my spice cabinet, this is an addition that I myself will be making to future sauces.
- Sprigs of fresh thyme: Fresh thyme is absolutely wasted in a sauce that cooks this long. Use dried – it's cheaper, and you will taste absolutely no difference. As a general rule of thumb, three hours is way too long for any fresh spice besides bay laurel; save yourself both money and hassle, and sticked to dried.
- And finally, the big one, the three hour long cooking time: I'm sorry, but it's just plain not worth it. Instead of slaving away at this for three hours (I don't consider any recipe to be "set it and forget it" if you need to stir regularly to keep in from burning), just follow these simple steps: 1) cook the garlic in the oil for a bare minute or less before you add the tomatoes to the pot, so that the garlic loses its sting, 2) add everything else, including the wine, and bring the sauce to a brisk simmer, 3) simmer the sauce on a reasonably high temperature for only about five minutes before your pasta goes into the boiling water, 4) when your pasta is about halfway done, add a full 6 oz can of tomato paste. A pasta sauce that way is honestly indistinguishable from this one, and it's ready in less than 30 minutes, instead of in three full hours.

Some of the ingredient insights of this sauce are solid, but save yourself the trouble, and make another recipe. You won't regret it.

No where does the recipe mention using a slow cooker. A slow cooker will not reduce the sauce. The point of the recipe is to reduce the sauce hence the name “Jammy”.

Just made this, and it looks great, cooked it in the slow cooker for 3 hours then switched to a pan for about an hour, perfect. Just added a little more salt and Italian seasoning.

This is really delicious. I used tomatoes that I canned myself, and didn't find the finished product too sweet. I am surprised at the negative comments, but I guess different people have different tastes. I am definitely adding this to my favourites and our regular dinner rotation.

Just made this in the slow cooker. 8 hours on low, then ~45 minutes on high without the lid. Tasted when I uncovered it - not the "jammy" consistency, and a definite metallic taste. So...more brown sugar + garlic salt, dried basil, dried oregano, garlic powder, a little more pepper flakes...pretty good. The ease of just throwing everything in allows for a little imperfection in the taste. Don't criticize it and call it "inauthentic" and "awful" - just adjust the seasonings to your liking.
I used whole San Marzanos and crushed them by hand, double the garlic and maybe not the best red wine - it was a little old (left by guests) and kept in refig for awhile. I don't think the sherry vinegar is necessary, but if it turns out too acidic, the extra brown sugar works the magic to bring it back. I know some don't like to add sugar, but I have no fear of sugar, especially brown - love the taste.
I think when I reheat the rest, I will let it reduce a bit and try to get the "jammy -ness".

Wow, this turned out extremely well. Love the smoky spicy kick. I only had 1 28 can of tomatoes so I sort of halved the ingredients. Let's hope I can duplicate it.
Oh I added capers

Really disappointed.

Spoiler alert: I'm speaking as an Italian here. This sauce is far from being authentic. It's totally bland. I would have to tweak this so much to have it ever match up to any authentic Italian sauce. No flavors stand out at all. It's about the same as what you can buy in a jar.

Well, I was so excited to try this after the glowing write up and reviews that I was DREAMING about it, literally!! I don’t know what went wrong, but not only not impressed, I basically hate this sauce! It is just sweet, sweet, sweet!! To use it I fry some hot peppers and then douse with red pepper flakes to fight off the sweetness. I’m going to try it again, after reading these reviews, but will reduce amount of balsamic and eliminate any sugar. It will be a while though until I’ll be in the “mood” for this sauce again. Wish I liked it!!