Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce

Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce is a rich, incredibly delicious pasta sauce, with plenty of butter & a touch of red onion for seasoning.

Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce (Marcella is key to the appreciation of Italian food in the western world) is a dish I turn to when editing my blog is drawing me away from the stove. It takes about forty-five minutes of simmering, but all of two minutes of actual work.

Tomatoes are the only thing I eat that comes out of a tin. They are one of the very few items that genuinely seem to taste better that way – in cooked applications, at least. Nutrients in the vast majority of fruits and vegetables are damaged by the heat. However when tomatoes are heated, levels of the phytochemical lycopene are significantly raised by the cooking process, meaning their anti-oxidant properties are increased. Or so I’m told.

But not all tinned tomatoes are created equal. And as this sauce contains pretty much only tinned tomatoes, they need to be good ones. Interestingly, I have not found price to be a good indicator of quality when it comes to tomatoes.

One top tip I picked up from a Rouxbe Cooking School video was to check the ingredients for the presence of either salt or citric acid. Both of these indicate that the tomatoes were not at their best when picked and the flavour had to be augmented to make them more palatable. In my experience, organic tinned tomatoes are least likely to contain these additives, so this is what I usually go for.

I try my very best to only eat whole grain carbohydrates now. I have been convinced that stripping all the nutritional value from such energy-dense foods plays a big role in our current nutritional woes. I always remember whole wheat pasta suffering from serious textural issues, but the pasta I have tried recently has had no such problems – even the cheapest versions. If you’re still skeptical, this sauce is a great way to reevaluate your reluctance. The hearty flavours of whole wheat stand up best to strongly flavoured vegetables, and boy is this sauce strongly flavoured!

The original recipe for Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce contained quite a bit more butter than I have listed in the ingredients. I’m a big fan of butter, but the original recipe just felt like too much. The sauce as I have described it is still incredibly well flavoured – deep and deliciously rich.

This sauce stands up well by itself, but if you want to jazz it up, a little chilli or a handful of fresh basil are great additions. ‘Parmesan’, as ever, is rightly seen as the standard flavour-booster to a bowl of tomatoey pasta, but a dollop of cream cheese on top, the heat melting it into rivulets that run down over the pasta, is also freakin’ delish.

I usually eat Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with pasta (check out my revolutionary new way to cook pasta), but it can also be used to dress whole grains, flavour roasted vegetables, as part of a lasagne… The list goes on. Have fun experimenting!