Tomato sugo
Serves 6 Preparation time 30 minutes Cooking time 30 minutes
Even though you could just boil the sauce, roasting it concentrates the flavours even further. Use any tomatoes, as long as they’re very ripe and beautifully red. I prefer tomatoes on their stalks, as this adds flavour, but don’t forget to remove the stalks before you pulse the sauce. Once a year, when ripe tomatoes are abundant, I double the recipe several times and preserve the boiling sauce for the pantry – I make enough to last me through winter.
You need
• 1kg fresh tomatoes • 2 tablespoons (30ml) olive oil • 1 onion, chopped • 4 garlic cloves, chopped • 1 tablespoon (15ml) tomato purée • 1 tablespoon (15ml) sugar • herbs of your choice, such as 2 sprigs
thyme or a bay leaf • salt and freshly ground black pepper
to taste
This is how
Preheat the oven to 160˚C. Arrange the tomatoes in an oven dish and roast them for 30 minutes (if using large tomatoes, cut them in half or leave them whole).
Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and sauté the onion and garlic over very low heat until soft and glossy (about 10 minutes). Remove the tomatoes from the oven and add them, along with the pan juices, to the saucepan with the onion and garlic.
Use a hand blender to process the mixture in the saucepan until you have a thick sauce. Depending on how juicy the tomatoes are, you might have to add water to achieve the desired texture. Now add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes or until it’s as thick as you’d like it. >