Simple Pomodoro (tomato) Sauce
There is a lot to be said for simple, staple recipes. The French five mother sauces are said to be like the First Principles of cooking. Master these five sauces and you can make any sauce. The five French sauces are: Béchamel, Velouté, Espagnole, Tomato, and Hollandaise. All excluding the latter begin with a simple Roux (fat source, like butter or meat drippings, plus flour – what Americans know as the most basic gravy).
The béchamel is the dairy-based sauce – think fettuccine alfredo. The velouté is a different kind of white sauce where the creaminess comes from an animal fat like chicken or pork drippings, not milk or cream. This can be one kind of gravy. The Espagnole is the second kind of gravy, where the drippings come from a red meat. The tomato sauce is, well… tomato. And Hollandaise, from which we get its sister Béarnaise, is a butter, egg yolk, and lemon-based sauce.
Pomodoro sauce is the Italian name for the simple tomato-based mother sauce, as “pomodoro” means “tomato” in Italian. It is meant to be the quickest, simplest pasta topper and I give it to you here in five simple steps that will keep you away from canned pasta sauce for life (as will my meat-hearty Bolognese sauce).
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what you need
1/2 onion, diced finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons good olive oil
2-3 handfuls of cherry or roma tomatoes, diced finely, with all their juices
1 handful of fresh basil
1 splash cream or half and half
how to make it
First. Sauté the onion and garlic in 1 tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat until fragrant, ~3 minutes.
Second. Add 1 more tablespoon of olive oil and the tomatoes (and juices), stirring to combine and cooking for an additional ~5 minutes.
Third. Puree the tomatoes in a food processor and then strain back into the pan to remove the seeds.
Fourth. Add the splash of cream and stir over medium heat until hot.
Fifth. Top with fresh basil and grilled chicken, if desired, then spoon over pasta.
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