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Back to Basics (Berkshire Eagle Column)

I know it’s so easy to open a jar of sauce for pasta. But if you have an onion and a can of tomatoes (both of which we always have in the house), you can make easily make something far better than what you can buy in the store! In my Berkshire Eagle column this past week, I wrote about a family staple which can be adapted to create myriad versions.

TOMATO TEMPLATE

by Elizabeth Baer 

Last week I retired from classroom teaching. I’ve been telling people I am not retiring entirely, as I still plan to write this column, to do freelance proofreading and editing, and to tutor Latin students online…and perhaps to write or edit a cookbook? Yet it is time to be unbound from the limitations of a school calendar.

We now have two grandchildren, both of whom live elsewhere, and we would like to be able to visit more easily. (Watch this column for recipes I’ve created for the elder one, Naomi, now 15 months old, who is a fantastic eater and likes everything I make for her!)

Meanwhile, more and more of my colleagues are having babies and posting first-day-of-school photos with their kiddos, at a very different stage of life than I. I remember those days, and how hectic it was. With kids, it’s different obligations at different ages, but always busy!

As I have been reminiscing about those days, I was thinking about the tomato sauce that I have made more times than I can count. Early on I realized that I could cook a rather quick sauce from canned tomatoes – yes, a bit longer to make than opening a jar, but so much better. It’s also extremely versatile. If you have an onion and a can of tomatoes in the pantry, you’re all set.

The basic template is vegan, but don’t let that stop you from sautéing some ground meat along with the onion. Or you can brown a couple sausages along with the onions and let them finish cooking in the tomato sauce. I used to make and bake trays of meatballs, freeze them on the trays, and then store them in zippered plastic bags. Then, when I had made the sauce, I could take out as many meatballs as the kids wanted for dinner and toss them in the sauce to defrost. (For my younger son’s favorite turkey meatballs with raisins and pine nuts, see this column. You can also make easier meatballs with 1 egg and ¼-½ cup seasoned breadcrumbs to every pound of ground meat.)

There is even versatility regarding the canned tomatoes. Tomato purée will make the smoothest sauce, while whole, peeled tomatoes, broken up by hand before adding to the pan, will be the chunkiest, and for something in between a can of crushed tomatoes does the trick. (If you use whole peeled tomatoes, be careful – they often squirt when crushed!)

BASIC TOMATO SAUCE FOR PASTA OR OTHER RECIPES

Sauces about a pound of pasta, depending on how saucy you like it

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

  • 1 medium onion, chopped

  • ½ teaspoon salt

  • 1 large clove garlic chopped or put through a garlic press

  • 1 teaspoon oregano

  • ½ teaspoon thyme

  • Crushed red pepper flakes to taste, optional

  • ½ cup water or chicken broth or dry red or white wine

  • 28-ounce can tomatoes (see above for a note on different types)

DIRECTIONS:

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat until shimmering and fragrant. Add the onion, sprinkle with salt, and sauté until soft, translucent, and beginning to brown.  Add garlic, herbs, and red pepper flakes, if using, and sauté for about a minute, stirring so that garlic doesn’t burn. Add liquid to deglaze the pan, and stir, scraping up and bits stuck to the pan.  Add tomatoes and simmer for 20 minutes or more, stirring occasionally to prevent the sauce from sticking to the bottom.

Toss with pasta and serve with grated Parmesan, if desired.

Some possible additions:

½ pound ground beef or loose sausage – add after onion has softened a bit; be sure to cook off any liquid that is given off so that some browning can occur

Whole sausages – add after onions have softened; turn while onions continue to cook so they can brown a bit

Frozen, previously cooked meatballs – simmer in the sauce until warmed through

Chopped mushrooms – add after onions have browned; sprinkle with salt and cook until all liquid has evaporated (NB: mushrooms give off a lot of liquid, so if you use mushrooms the liquid they give off can be used for deglazing, and unless you are using something that will add flavor, like broth or wine, you will not need to add any water.)

My ColumnsElizabeth Baer