How do I make a proper Italian pasta tomato sauce?

[BQ91]

I’ve tried making various tomato sauces using various chopped tomatoes etc but can’t seem to replicate anything close to what I’ve eaten in Italy! Any ideas would be much appreciated!

Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce

It really does sound too simple to work, but its the best recipe I've ever used

Lots of YouTube vids of people using the recipe if you are interestsed!

Cook it long and slow, on super-low heat so you just see a couple of bubbles breaking the surface. Use the best quality tomatoes you can. Add a tap of sugar to offset the acidity of the tomatoes. HOWEVER, the ingredients are just better in Italy when they're in season, so ultimately tomato sauce will always taste better there 🤷🏽‍♀️

Sauté onions really slowly (we use frozen onions, much easier). Once they’re translucent, add in passata and chopped basil, ideally fresh but can be dried.

I agree with notes from PP

• quality of tomatoes - tinned tomatoes are great for so many things, but if you want the tomato to be the star I find using the best fresh tomatoes I can makes a difference
• sugar to balance
• garlic
• add in a parmesan rind
• fresh basil at end
• allow time for it to cook down

Parmesan rind is a great shout!

I'm not sure where I found the recipe but my go to is chopping onions, carrot, celery then sauteing really slowly in olive oil to the point that it's mushy. Add chopped garlic, then 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, pinch of sugar, pinch of salt and cook really gently for a good hour or so. Add in fresh thyme and basil at the end. Think it's called soffrito.

The secret is definitely cooking it slowly for hours. This negates the need for sugar as it breaks down the tomatoes properly and releases their natural sweetness.

Shit loads of butter, good fresh tomatoes and cook for ages

Cook the onions VERY slowly, about an hour to caramelise.
I disagree about using fresh toms in the UK. Much better to use good quality tinned toms from Italy. Even own-label tins are better, but might need a touch of sugar.

No sugar. Tinned tomatoes are far superior to fresh in this country for a tomato sauce. Use Mutti tinned tomatoes, put in a pan with half a peeled onion and butter and cook on a low heat for an hour. Remove the onion.

If making with fresh tomatoes, Italians tend to use the ripe tomatoes at the height of summer, make a huge batch and jar them to use through the year.

Just buy really good tinned tomatoes. Olive oil, garlic, bay leaf, sprinkle of sugar and simmer slowly. Mix in basil leaves before serving. My husband is Italian and and this is my favourite

When I went to Italy and had the most amazing tomato sauce I asked the waiter what was in it. Tomatoes, basil and garlic. He was offended when i suggested onions as well. Apparently Italians don’t put onions in their tomato sauce.

Just to add, the Italian family I lived with for a bit called me a philistine for using chopped Tinned tomatoes. They used whole tomatoes and waited for long and slow cooking to 'chop' them instead.

Butter. Lots and lots of butter.

I use canned or fresh vine ripe toms, sea salt and quality olive oil for a basic tomato sauce. When the fancy something different I’ll add onion, garlic and or a few chillies or chopped smoked bacon. Adding mascapone makes it richer

Where I used to live in italy they added roughly cut garlic to olive oil and when it turned brown they'd take it out and bin it. Then just tinned tomatoes, agree with pp, cooked for ages. Salt and pepper only.
If you add anything else it would be treated as a totally different sauce!
It may taste different in italy due to the pasta type, it 'clings' differently if its bronze die, I doubt our basic pasta is made with 00 flour either.

I'm sure that's lovely and I might try it but my Italian landlady would have had a fit at butter! Might be a regional variation...

If you want a cheat version use the soffritto passata from Waitrose, it's really very good!

You can make a really good tomato sauce with just olive oil, parsley and tinned tomatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste and whizz down to thicken it up.

I make alot of tomato sauces as I grow alot of tomatoes. I pretty much make them with whatever is available from the plot on the day - from parsley to onions to garlic to just tomatoes and olive oil and salt.

One thing is that sugar does need to be added to sauces made with fresh tomatoes from UK supermarkets as they are harvested under ripe and need some sweetness. Whereas if you harvest the tomatoes ripe, then it is salt that needs adding.

If your sauces don't taste good they probably need salt.

On a nerdy note I've been reading up about Piedmont as we're going there this summer hopefully. Apparently eating tomato sauce was really unheard of there till quite recently. As its more of a southern thing.

I'm in Puglia. We'd only use fresh tomatoes in September for sauce when they're overripe and cheap. Right now they're more expensive than the UK and I haven't bought any fresh even for a salad for months!

Mutti is a good brand of tinned tomatoes but we tend to use polpa or passata.

No onion unless you're using a soffritto of onion, celery and carrot in order to make a meat sauce. You can let a whole clove of garlic swizzle round in the hot oil before adding the tomato then fish it out.

Lots more oil than you think, lots more salt than you think. Make sure the oil is hot as that releases the sweetness. Old wives (and Jamie Oliver) say only use a wooden spoon with tomato sauces as metal adds bitterness.

Fresh torn basil leaf at the end of you want . That's it. Tomato, oil, salt.

As an Italian I can tell you it's because of the tomatoes. England just doesn't have the same ones.

We don't have the right tomatoes here, but as my nonna used to say
Add a little milk and use good canned tomato

Wow I’m blown away by all the suggestions! Thank you so much, I will have fun trying these 😄