Nonna-approved tomato sauce or sugo
As the foundation of so many Italian recipes, tomato sauce (or sugo as our Italian friends say), is a vital ingredient in our house.
We use this in pasta, on pizza, and over veal and chicken, but this versatile sauce can be used with so much more.
Although this sauce gets eaten quickly in our home, you can keep it fresh in the fridge for three or four days. Fill a mason jar and this makes a great gift too.
In case you’re wondering, the picture we took shows vine-ripened tomatoes, but these are not the tomatoes we used for the sauce–the stems and vine just looked prettier in the shot.
All the ingredients
Getting the cut-ups ready
Everything’s in the pot
Nonna-Approved Tomato Sauce (for pasta, pizza and more)
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Delicious tomato sauce that can be used on fresh pasta, pizza, meatballs, veal, etc. A versatile sauce that works as a base for so many meals.
Author: Nelson Cardoso
Recipe type: Sauce
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 2.5 litres
Ingredients
- 3 cans (28 fluid ounces each can) whole peeled tomatoes (my personal favourite is La San Marzano which I usually find at Costco)
- 4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium cooking onion thinly sliced
- 3 cloves of garlic minced
- ¼ cup good red wine (plus an extra glass to drink while cooking)
- ½ tsp sugar
- 10 to 15 fresh basil leaves rolled and diced
- 1 whole medium peeled carrot
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Heat up olive oil in a large saucepan on medium heat.
- Once the oil is hot, add onions and sauté until they start to look translucent. Add the chopped garlic and continue sautéing for another 3 minutes but don't let the garlic burn.
- Add the tomatoes (with liquid), wine, sugar, basil, carrot, oregano, salt and pepper. Break up the tomatoes inside the pot with a wooden spoon and stir well.
- Bring the mixture up to a slow boil and lower to simmer covered for 2 hours. Mix occasionally but be careful with splatters from the hot tomato mixture while stirring.
- Sample and adjust salt and ground pepper to taste.
- Remove the whole carrot
- Your sauce is now ready for your pasta or other favorite dish.
- Notes: If your family doesn't like the sauce as chunky, feel free to purée the mixture after removing the carrot.
My Greek wife says that if you use extra-virgin olive oil to cook with you spoil it. There are processed olive oils that are lighter and can be used for cooking. Bread is to be dipped in cold pressed extra-virgin and it can be poured over Greek salad. It should be treated almost as if it was a medicine.
Hi Steven, thanks for the feedback. I really do appreciate different points of view on these recipes. I did experiment with different oils over time and the olive oil gave us our favourite result. But having said that, you may enjoy a different oil or ratio of spices even more. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. If you end up trying it with another type of oil, please let us know how it goes. It’s always nice to have different options for our readers. Take care and happy cooking.
I love the sounds of this recipe and will give it a try this Sunday. My question is how long will this sauce keep in a jar? I assume you can refrigerate in a mason jar or something for future use?
Hi Daniel, I’m so sorry, I completely missed this message and I’m guessing it’s a bit too late now. In any case, I typically make the sauce and then put the leftovers in a tight container in the fridge for up to a week. Once again, apologies for the late response.
Thanks a lot of sauce for one can. I guess you can add some lemon juice to the bottom of the jars and can them to last longer?
Hi Charlie, I’m not sure about the lemon juice, I’ve never done that, but I will investigate this. Take care.