Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Updated February 23, 2016 
This is the simplest of all sauces to make, and none has a purer, more irresistibly sweet tomato taste. I have known people to skip the pasta and eat the sauce directly out of the pot with a spoon.
Recommended pasta: This is an unsurpassed sauce for potato gnocchi, but it is also delicious with factory-made pasta in such shapes as spaghetti, penne, or rigatoni. Serve with grated Parmesan.May be frozen when done. Discard the onion before freezing.
Making Fresh Tomatoes Ready for Sauce: Unless the recipe indicates otherwise, fresh, ripe tomatoes must be prepared to use for sauce following one of the two methods given below. The blanching method can lead to a meatier, more rustic consistency. The food mill method produces a silkier, smoother sauce.
The Blanching Method: Plunge the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute or less. Drain them and, as soon as they are cool enough to handle, skin them, and cut them up in coarse pieces.
The Food Mill Method: Wash the tomatoes in cold water, cut them lengthwise in half, and put them in a covered saucepan. Turn on the heat to medium and cook for 10 minutes. Set a food mill fitted with the disk with the largest holes over a bowl. Transfer the tomatoes with any of their juices to the mill and puree.
For6 servings
CostInexpensive
Total Timeunder 1 hour
Make Ahead RecipeYes
Kid FriendlyYes
One Pot MealYes
OccasionCasual Dinner Party, Family Get-together
Dietary Considerationvegetarian
Equipmentfood mill
Five Ingredients or LessYes
Mealdinner, lunch
Taste and Texturebuttery, sweet
Type of Dishpasta sauce
Ingredients
- 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes, prepared as described below, OR 2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
- Salt
- 1 to 1½ pounds pasta
- Freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese for the table
Instructions
-
Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time, mashing any large piece of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta.
1992 Marcella Hazan
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SissieSass
Jun 29, 2017
I love the combination of tomatoes and butter in a sauce. It just screams comfort food to me. I always made the mistake of putting the butter in the pasta water which always made the sauce slide off the noodles and not stick when you were eating it. This is the best way to prepare the sauce so it sticks just fine after it is prepared.
gmp62 8188434
Aug 07, 2010
This sauce was delicious and very easy to prepare. The butter gives the sauce a lovely richness, too. This recipe is definitely being added to my favorite recipe rotation!
julieannem 5028606
Jun 16, 2010
This is the most delicious tomato sauce and so easy to make.
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