Tomato Butter Sauce
Tomato Butter sauce, adapted from a recipe in Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan is silky and delicious. It punches above its weight, transforming a few simple ingredients into one of the most frequently requested meals in my family. This recipe makes enough sauce for one pound of dry pasta.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter
- 1 medium onion cut in half through the root end
- 1/4 teaspoon salt plus more to taste
- 1 (28 oz) can whole peeled tomatoes
- pinch sugar as needed
Instructions
- Add butter, onion, and salt to a large sauté pan over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, cook for another minute to soften onion a little bit.
- Add canned tomatoes and their liquid to the sauté pan. Use a flat wooden spoon to start breaking up the tomatoes. Bring tomato-butter mixture to a slow simmer, stirring frequently.
- Continue to break up the tomatoes as the sauce simmers. Cook at a very low simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce is silky and thickened.
- Taste the sauce, adding more salt and/or a pinch of sugar if desired.
- Remove the onion. Refrigerate for another use or dice a portion of the cooked onion to use as topping on pasta if desired.
- There's enough sauce for 1 pound of dry pasta. I like to use half the sauce immediately on 1/2 pound pasta and freeze the remaining half for another meal.
- To serve, combine tomato butter sauce with cooked pasta, tossing well and adding spoonfuls of pasta cooking water if desired to achieve preferred consistency. Garnish with freshly grated parmesan.
Notes
- Some versions of this recipe suggest discarding the onion when the sauce is done. But the onion retains a lovely mild sweetness and a crisp bite. I like to dice some of the cooked onion and sprinkle it on the sauced pasta. I keep any remaining onion in the refrigerator to use in another dish.
- 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.
- 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.