THE ULTIMATE TOMATO SAUCE

We take our tomato sauce very seriously! After living between NYC and Umbria, Italy for over 8 years, tomato sauce became a favourite and a staple in our household. There is nothing more comforting than a "pasta dinner" yet the perfect tomato sauce takes love and time to make. 

Enjoy making one of our favourite staples and let the aroma from hours of cooking literally take you away to a small town in Italy... 

Ingredients

• 4 kilos of tomatoes - we suggest plum or cherry tomatoes.
• Half a branch of celery
• Half an onion chopped 
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 5 basil leaves 
• Salt
• Sugar 

THE KITCHEN ESSENTIALS 

• Large Pot 
• Large Pan 
• Stainless steel food mill or potato masher
• Glass mason jar  

TIMING

Approx. 4 hours + overnight resting 

• Prep 15 mins
• Cook 3 + hours 
• Let it rest overnight 

PREP + COOK 

1. Wash all of the tomatoes and lay them out on old towels or tablecloths to dry
2. Cut the tomatoes into quarters
3. Chop the celery into small cubes
4. Finely chop the onion
5. Crush the garlic cloves
6. Place all the ingredients into a large pot with a tablespoon of olive oil
7. Add half a cup of water
8. Bring the pot to the stove
9. Cover whilst leaving to simmer over low heat
10. Stir occasionally
11. Cook for an hour to an hour and half until tomato sauce has thickened
12. Turn off the heat and slowly start crushing the tomatoes.
13. You can do this two ways - either remove the tomatoes from the heat and slowly pour using a ladle into your stainless steel food mill.
14. Or use a potato masher and crush the tomatoes directly in the large pot.
15. This is the messiest and best part of the process, you are essentially crushing the tomatoes and separating the peel and any remaining seeds.
16. Avoid crushing the them too much, but just enough to get a juicer texture
17. If you are using the potato masher to crush the tomatoes you will need to discard the peels as you go
18. Transfer the sauce out of the pot / or from your food mill into a large pan.
19. Add an additional table spoon of olive oil and a quarter cup of water
20. Bring to the stove
21. Add in two teaspoons of salt
22. Try the sauce and if the tomatoes taste too acidic, we suggest adding in a teaspoon of sugar to balance out the acidity
23. Tear in 5 basil leaves
24. Keep the sauce on low and stir every 5 mins
25. Leave it to cook for 1-2 hours
26. Keep Covered
27. Once the sauce is ready, transfer from the large pot into a large glass mason jar, keep covered and let it rest overnight
28. Enjoy the sauce following day with pasta and season with black pepper and fresh basil leaves  
29. Once opened, refrigerate the jar and use the sauce within 5 days.