Homemade Tomato Sauce (Four Ingredients)
A kilo of ripe tomatoes cooked down with onion, garlic and a pinch of sugar for half an hour, then blended. No tin, no herbs, and the sugar is there to correct the acidity rather than to sweeten it.
Servings: 2 cups
Calories: 304kcal
Ingredients
- 1 kg ripe tomatoes the riper the better; underripe tomatoes make a sharp, thin sauce
- 1 onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon sugar corrects the acidity of the tomato; it does not make the sauce sweet
Instructions
- Peel the onion and chop it finely, and do the same with the garlic.
- Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat, add the onion and garlic and cook for about five minutes.
- Wash the tomatoes well, cut out the stem, chop them and add them to the pan.
- Add the salt and the sugar and stir well.
- Cook for 30 minutes, then blend it smooth.
- Strain it if you want to get rid of the skins and seeds, or use it as it is.
Notes
A kilo of tomatoes cooks down to roughly half a litre of sauce, which keeps about five days in the fridge and freezes well in portions. The sugar is not there to sweeten: a quarter teaspoon against a kilo of tomato is undetectable as sweetness and does its work on the acidity, which is why tinned sauces almost all contain some. If your tomatoes are very ripe you may not need it at all, so taste before adding. Blending with the skins in gives a thicker, more rustic sauce; straining gives a smoother one and loses a little volume.
Nutrition
Calories: 304kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 22g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 15g | Sodium: 319mg | Potassium: 1278mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 16g | Vitamin A: 4166IU | Vitamin C: 74mg | Calcium: 68mg | Iron: 2mg