Tomato sauce will often make or break your dish. If you get this step wrong, your pasta will be below par no matter how perfectly you cook it. This is why most people believe that making a perfect tomato sauce requires lots of ingredients and borders with sorcery. But, as it turns out, the truth couldn’t be more different.
In the early 1970s, Italian cooking writer Marcella Hazan published her now-iconic cookbook The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating. She presented five different tomato sauce recipes in the publication, and while all of them were great, the one labeled as “Tomato Sauce III” managed to achieve cult status due to its simplicity and fantastic taste.
Hazan’s iconic recipe, now considered the golden standard for tomato sauces, requires only three ingredients and takes less than an hour to prepare. Check out how to do it below.
Ingredients
- 28. oz can peeled tomatoes
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 onion
Instructions
1. Combine the peeled tomatoes and butter in a saucepan.
2. Peel the onion, cut it in halves, and add it to the saucepan as well. Season with a pinch of salt.
3. Turn the stove on medium heat and simmer. Continue cooking uncovered for around 45 minutes while occasionally stirring.
4. Remove the onion, and the tomato sauce is ready to use.
