Winter Tomato Sauce Recipes

Steps:

• In a heavy 5-quart saucepan cook onion, carrot, celery, garlic, basil, oregano, bay leaf, and salt and pepper to taste in oil over moderate heat, stirring, until vegetables are softened and add wine. Boil wine until most is evaporated and stir in tomato paste and tomatoes with reserved juice.
• Simmer sauce, covered, over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, 35 minutes and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes, or until thickened. Discard bay leaf. Sauce may be made 2 days in advance and kept covered and chilled.

Steps:

• Using fingers, split open tomatoes; remove and discard seeds. Chop tomatoes; reserve juice. Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chopped tomatoes and reserved juice and all remaining ingredients; stir to combine. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until sauce is reduced to 4 cups, stirring often, about 1 hour.
• Remove bay leaf and any stems from herbs. Pass sauce through food mill fitted with large holes. Alternately, transfer to processor. Using on/off turns, process to coarse puree.

Steps:

• In a small bowl soak dried tomatoes in boiling water 30 minutes and drain in a sieve over a bowl. Chop soaked tomatoes coarse.
• While dried tomatoes are soaking, in a saucepan cook onion and garlic in butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add canned tomatoes with juice, stirring to break up tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste and simmer sauce, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.
• Purée sauce through the fine disk of a food mill or force it through a coarse sieve set over a bowl. Sauce may be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 250 degrees. If using larger tomatoes, such as beefsteak or plum tomatoes, slice them in half; if using cherry tomatoes, leave them whole.
• Combine tomatoes, garlic, ginger and basil in a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Add enough olive oil to cover. Transfer to oven and bake for 2 hours; the tomatoes should have started to collapse and have a few brown spots. Return them to the oven if necessary.
• Remove baking dish from oven and let tomatoes cool. Drain the oil and reserve. (You can use it as you would any normal olive oil.) Refrigerate or freeze your tomatoes for later use; they will last in the fridge up to 1 week. The oil will keep for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.

Steps:

• Roll out the crust and line a 9- or 10-inch tart pan. Refrigerate uncovered (place in freezer if using the yeasted crust) while you make the filling.
• Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a wide, heavy saucepan and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until it begins to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and continue to cook, stirring often, until tender, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile pulse the tomatoes in a food processor fitted with the steel blade or in a mini-processor.
• Add the garlic to the onions and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add to the canned tomatoes and turn up the heat slightly. Add the tomato paste, sugar, salt, basil or rosemary spring and thyme and simmer briskly, stirring often, until the tomatoes have cooked down and smell fragrant, about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt, and add pepper. Remove from the heat. Remove the basil or rosemary sprig and, if you used rosemary, remove any rosemary needles that may have detached from the sprig. Allow to cool slightly. You should have about 1 cup of the sauce.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Beat the eggs and egg yolks in a large bowl. Brush the bottom of the crust with a small amount of the beaten egg and pre-bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
• Beat the milk into the eggs. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, freshly ground pepper to taste and beat together. Stir in the cheeses and the tomato sauce and combine well. Scrape into the crust, using a rubber spatula to scrape out every last bit from the bowl. Place the tart on a sheet pan for easier handling and place in the oven. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until set. Remove from the heat and allow to sit for at least 15 minutes before cutting.

Steps:

• In a large bowl soak bread crumbs in milk 10 minutes. Finely chop onions. Add onions and remaining meatball ingredients to bread crumb mixture and with your hands blend together until just combined well (do not overmix). Form mixture into walnut-size balls and arrange on large trays or baking sheets.
• In a large heavy skillet heat 2 tablespoons oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown meatballs in batches without crowding, shaking skillet to maintain round shape and adding remaining oil as necessary. Transfer meatballs as browned (and any browned onions that fall from meatballs) with a slotted spoon to a 7- to 8-quart heavy kettle.
• In a large sieve set over a bowl drain tomatoes, reserving juice, and chop. To meatballs add chopped tomatoes with reserved juice, garlic, and oregano and simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Transfer meatballs with a slotted spoon to a bowl and keep warm, loosely covered with foil. Briskly simmer sauce until reduced to about 2 cups, about 25 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper and gently stir in meatballs. (Meatballs in sauce may be made 3 days ahead and cooled completely, uncovered, before being chilled, covered. Reheat meatballs in sauce before serving.)
• Gently stir parsley into meatballs and sauce.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, shallots and pepper flakes and cook for about a minute; add tomatoes and squash, and cook with some salt and pepper.
• When squash is tender - about 10 minutes for shreds, 15 or so for small cubes - cook pasta until it is tender. Combine sauce and pasta, and serve, garnished with parsley or Parmesan.