Roasted Tomato Butter Sauce
This recipe is adapted from Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. My version features roasted tomatoes for a hint of caramelized tomato flavor and uses a lighter touch with the butter. It's perfect for homegrown or farm-fresh tomatoes. The only trick is having the right tool - a food mill - to puree, skin, and seed the tomatoes. The result is a silky sauce that is irresistibly savory. This recipe makes enough for 2 pounds of lightly sauced pasta, one to serve immediately and another batch for the freezer. For a quick and easy version using canned tomatoes, try my Tomato Butter Sauce.
EQUIPMENT
- food mill (or China cap chinois strainer)
Ingredients
- 4 pounds fresh tomatoes
- 4 tablespoons ½ stick unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- 1 medium onion cut in half from top to bottom
- pinch sugar optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425º F. Cut tomatoes in half lengthwise. Arrange tomatoes, cut-side up, on a large foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Roast for about 40 to 50 minutes, until tomatoes are tender and somewhat shrunken; the skins may be charred in spots.
- Use a food mill (fitted with disc with smallest holes) to puree the tomatoes, capturing the sauce in a large bowl or sauté pan, removing skin and seeds. Puree in multiple batches as needed. Discard the skin and seeds.
- Transfer pureed tomatoes to a sauté pan and set over medium-low heat. Add the butter, onion, and salt to the pan. Bring to a slow simmer. Continue to simmer slowly, stirring occasionally, for approximately 30 to 45 minutes, or until sauce reaches desired thickness. Remove onion, refrigerate and save for another use. Taste the sauce for salt, add more to taste. Add a pinch of sugar if desired.
- This recipe makes enough sauce for 2 pounds of lightly sauced pasta. Use half the sauce immediately for 1 pound of pasta; freeze the remaining sauce for another meal.
Notes
- Plum tomatoes are meaty and yield a thick sauce. However, any variety of red tomato works. Adjust simmering time to achieve desired thickness.
- What’s A Food Mill? A food mill is a low-tech kitchen gadget that grinds fruits and vegetables while removing skin and seeds. A hand crank turns a sloping blade, which pushes the food through the holes of a perforated disc, resulting in a smooth puree. Many food mills come with three interchangeable discs (with small, medium or large holes) so you can vary the thickness of the puree. Food mills are especially useful for making smooth tomato sauce, applesauce, and lump-free mashed potatoes. (Since my food mill broke, I've been relying on my vintage China cap chinois strainer to puree roasted tomatoes. It's fun and it works well! The size of the perforations may allow some seeds through, but that contributes to the flavor.)
- If I’ve got a large enough onion, I try to cut it through the root end into 3 pieces, to maximize the amount of the onion that is submerged in the tomato butter sauce as it cooks. Regardless, I turn the onions over once or twice as the sauce cooks, to encourage more even cooking and hopefully more onion flavor in the sauce.
- Some versions of this recipe suggest discarding the onion when the sauce is done. But the onion retains mild sweetness and firm texture. I like to dice some of the cooked onion and sprinkle it on the sauced pasta as a garnish. I keep any remaining onion in the refrigerator to use in another dish.
- Roasted tomato butter sauce is delicious on its own, but also very adaptable. Garnish with fresh basil for a burst of flavor and color. I like to roast Italian sausages while sauce is cooking for a juicy embellishment without too much more effort. It's also my go-to sauce for spaghetti with meatballs.