In the realm of homemade tomato sauce, there are three basic styles: the long simmered, the barely cooked and the raw. Long simmering achieves a rich, complex flavour. Barely cooked sauce has a lighter flavour that tastes more recognizably of fresh tomatoes, but a little bit of cooking softens the tomatoes and brings out more of their sweetness. Uncooked sauce is bright and refreshing, and it's best made with thoroughly ripe summer tomatoes.
Long simmered tomato sauce can be delicious any time of year. The benefits of extended cooking time are that the sauce thickens as the water cooks out, and the flavours meld together the longer they simmer. Additionally, any vegetables you have added to the sauce will grow richer and sweeter the longer they cook. During the summer, if you find yourself with a large amount of ripe tomatoes and cannot eat enough salads to keep up with the supply, long simmered tomato sauce is the perfect answer. Simmering time can range anytime from 2 hours to all day, depending on how thick and rich you like your sauce. Make a big batch, eat some for dinner, and pour the rest into freezer safe containers for the coming months. Then, simply thaw it as needed; You can add any additional herbs, spices, veggies, or meats as needed for the particular recipe you are making. You can make a delicious batch of tomato sauce in the dead of winter as well, though. Just keep in mind that when fresh tomatoes are out-of-season, it's perfectly okay to use canned tomatoes instead. In fact, it's much better that way, because out-of-season fresh tomatoes will be severely lacking in flavour.
Barely cooked tomato sauce can be particularly succulent in the summer, when tomatoes are begging to be eaten in every possible form. The benefit of briefly cooked sauce is that, while you maintain some of the fresh, tart sweet tomato taste, you also cook the ingredients long enough to add some depth to the flavour of the sauce. You can caramelize some onions, sauté some garlic and simmer some herbs long enough to spread the flavour through the sauce. After 20 or 30 minutes of simmering, this flavourful sauce will be ready to liven up your meal.
Raw tomato sauce makes for a wonderfully refreshing summertime meal. This humble but heavenly concoction can be eaten right away tossed with pasta, spooned over grilled meats, mounded on lightly toasted rustic bread, spread on pizza crust for an extremely memorable sauce, or whatever else sounds good to you. To make raw tomato sauce, you should only use fresh tomatoes at their peak of ripeness, when they are sweet and juicy and bursting with flavour. The process is easy: Just seed your tomatoes (peeling is optional, in this case) and chop them. Alternately, you can cut the tomatoes into quarters, seed them, and then grate them with a cheese grater for a smoother, juicier sauce. Raw tomato sauce only needs to be seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs (basil or parsley are best), and some salt and pepper. It's essential for this simple dish that all the ingredients be high-quality and fresh, because there are no heavy flavours or extensive cooking processes to hide behind if the ingredients are less than perfect. If you've got a little more time to spare, you can enhance your raw sauce by allowing it to sit for several hours, giving the flavours a chance to blend and deepen.
If you prefer thick, chunky tomato sauce, you'll need to peel your tomatoes first. However, if you like your sauce smooth and you own a food mill, you can dispense with the peeling; the mill will strain out the skin for you as it purees the sauce to your desired consistency. If you decide to peel the tomatoes, the best way to do this is to blanch them first.
To blanch your tomatoes, start with a pile of fresh, ripe tomatoes. Tomatoes that are relatively low in water content, such as plum tomatoes, make the best sauce. Fill a pot with water and bring it to a boil on the stovetop. While you're waiting for the water to boil, use a sharp knife to cut a small, shallow "X" in the top and bottom of each tomato. Put some ice in a big bowl, and fill the bowl the rest of the way with water. As soon as the water comes to a boil, drop in some tomatoes and let them stay there for about 30 to 60 seconds, until the skin around the incisions begins to peel back a little. The riper the tomatoes are, the less time it will take. If you're doing lots of tomatoes, blanch them in manageable batches of no more than six or eight at a time. Remove the tomatoes from the water with a slotted spoon and douse them in the ice water. They will now be a breeze to peel.
Whether or not you choose to peel the tomatoes, you should still seed them, as the seeds can lend a bitter taste to the sauce as it cooks. Seeding tomatoes is really quite easy. All you need to do is cut the tomato in half and gently squeeze or scoop out the seeds. If you're using plum tomatoes, cut them lengthwise to get the seeds out with the least effort. All other tomatoes are most easily seeded when cut crosswise.
Once you have a nice pile of seeded and peeled (or unpeeled) tomatoes, chop them coarsely. Choose a pot that will comfortably fit all of the tomatoes, but be careful: the acidity of tomatoes can deteriorate pots made from aluminum, or those covered with non-stick coatings, so choose something made of stainless steel or coated in enamel. Heat up some olive oil over medium heat. If you want to season your sauce with onions, garlic, or any other veggies, this is the time to add them. Sauté until browned, and then stir in the tomatoes. Gently saute the tomatoes for a few minutes, then reduce the heat and let the mass simmer for as long as you like. The tomatoes will begin to soften and release their liquid. The longer you cook them, the more the sauce will thicken, and the richer and sweeter it will taste. Some people like to simmer for 20 minutes, others insist on 2 days.
One of the aspects of perfectly ripe tomatoes that people enjoy so much is the delicate balance between sweetness and acidity. However, not all tomatoes are perfectly ripe when you encounter them, and different varieties of tomato will have a different ratio of sweetness to tartness. You can make improvements on Nature by adding your own versions of sweetness and acidity. In the sweet department, there is always good old fashioned sugar, but there are also other sweet vegetables that can add that certain perfect something to a cooked tomato sauce. Try caramelized onions, sautied carrots, roasted red bell peppers, roasted garlic or even a combination of all of them. For acidity, you can experiment with lemon juice, all manner of vinegars or wine.
As for texture, flavour and complexity, there's an almost endless assortment of seasonings and additions you can use to customize your tomato sauce. Too thick? Add some water, stock or tomato juice. Too thin? Add some pureed steamed vegetables, or simmer it longer, until some more of the liquid evaporates. Need more flavour? Add wine, vodka, salt, sugar, ground-up nuts, hot peppers, roasted vegetables or herbs. The herbs that tomato sauce loves best are rosemary, oregano, basil and parsley. Rosemary and oregano should go in near the beginning, but basil and parsley should be stirred in at the very end to keep their delicate flavours from cooking away. For a rich, smoky taste to your sauce, you can even roast the tomatoes themselves before adding them to the pot. If you're going to include onions, garlic, carrots, sweet or hot peppers, or any other veggies with the sauce, saute them until nicely caramelized before you combine them with the tomatoes this will really contribute to the overall flavour of the sauce. Don't underestimate the power of salt for waking up the flavours in any food, but avoid adding very much of it until the sauce is almost done cooking. What tastes like perfectly seasoned and salted sauce at the beginning of cooking time can make you pucker after several more hours of simmering has had time to intensify flavours and evaporate water. Keep tasting, adjusting the seasoning, and tasting again, until you reach the flavour of your choice.
