Traditional tomato sauce

I think one of the things that made me want to cook professionally was understanding that food is a way of expressing love, to ourselves and to people we don’t know, but just knowing that the person felt comfort or closed their eyes when you take your first bite… It’s an inexplicable feeling.

Another reason is to be able to use creativity, change recipes, add unique “touches”, and that doesn’t mean we’ll never make mistakes, because mistakes happen a lot when it comes to cooking.

There are recipes that are traditional, such as Italian tomato sauce, very famous around the world, which does not mean that it should always be done like this. But you have to like it and that’s good too.

In the last two years of my restaurant, a Japanese and Chinese food restaurant in the historic center of Paraty-RJ, I incorporated some dishes into the menu that could please everyone, as I received many people, usually couples, who wanted to eat our food, but their /your companion didn’t, as they didn’t like eating “raw things” lol So one of the dishes that was a success, by the way, was Spaghetti with seafood and to cook the seafood, I used a tomato sauce Traditional and very aromatic, made right there.

Ingredients
10 tomatoes (preferably Italian) or 2 cans of peeled tomatoes
3 cloves of garlic
2 onions
5 spoons of olive oil
2 bay leaves
Salt, black pepper, oregano as needed
2 spoons of butter
1/2 bunch of coriander

Method of preparation
If you are using canned tomatoes, just check if there are any skins on them and remove them. If you prefer, remove the seeds as well. For fresh tomatoes, make an X with the knife on the bottom of the tomatoes, boil water in a large pan and add the tomatoes, let it boil until they start to loosen their skin (7-10 minutes). Remove only the tomatoes, place them in a basin with very cold water, or even some ice cubes, with the help of a small knife, “shave” the tomatoes, removing all the skin and knots from the tomato. Here, at this moment, if you prefer, you can remove the seeds too. Chop the tomatoes into very small cubes and set aside. If you don’t like very rustic sauces, blend the tomatoes with water before sautéing.
In a pan, sauté the diced onions until they become transparent, add a little salt and leave on a very low heat until they start to caramelize, add the garlic, also chopped into small cubes, and sauté well. Add the bay leaf, black pepper, oregano and let it sauté a little, the seasonings seem like they are going to stick to the pan, but just keep stirring, the oil starts to change color, at this point, add the chopped tomatoes. Let it cook and stir a little so it doesn’t stick. When the tomatoes look very shriveled, add an average of 600ml of water, if you used peeled tomatoes, use the “broth” that was left in the cans along with the water. Let it boil until it starts to “thicken”, on average 20 minutes over low heat, adjust the salt, check if it has a lot of acidity and if so, you can add a spoonful of sugar, but be careful. Finish with butter to gloss the sauce and chopped coriander, to give it that “touch of the sea”, if you’re using seafood like I did, but if you’re using another accompaniment, invest in basil.

And it looked like this, beautiful!

I hope you like it, bon appetit!