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Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

Pomodori e Vino Posted on by

Well that was easy.
Marcella refers to this as the simplest of all sauces to make, with a sweet tomato taste. Agreed. Below are all the ingredients called for, including the rigatoni pasta option. The jar in the background is fleur de sel. I like using it whenever I can. I’ve even brought back some from our visits to Provence, until I discovered I can buy the exact same salt more economically at my local supermarket than at the Friday market in Lourmarin.
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The recipe was so simple, that I thought it might be a bit bland, but I was wrong. It was very pleasant with a distinctive tomato flavour. I’m glad I used fresh, rather than canned tomatoes. I grow a lot of tomatoes in my large vegetable garden – pretty sure tomatoes straight from the garden would taste even better. Here’s the end result:
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There’s not much more to comment on about this recipe. The whole dish takes about an hour from start to finish. Of course, I didn’t choose this recipe. It was the luck of the draw to get such an easy dish to prepare.
But, would I make it again? …. Maybe (it’s dead simple, quick and tasty), but I will try some adjustments to the ingredients. The recipe calls for 5 tablespoons of butter (the stick in front of the onion), which seems like a lot to be putting into any recipe these days. A little less sweetness and a little more tomato flavour would be OK with me.

Comments

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter — 7 Comments

  2. I make this for my family frequently. I love how simple it is…I can get it simmering on the stove and have it ready for lunch. I could eat this sauce straight out of the pan. And I have. 😉 Great pictures, Doug!

  3. We love this sauce and make it often. We especially like it on home made ravioli stuffed with sheeps milk ricotta. We reserve the cooked onions and use them on sandwiches or as part of a composed salad.
    Another wonderful thing about this recipe is that we usually have all of the ingredients on hand.
    Looks good Doug!

  4. The 5 tablespoons of butter are for a sauce that is meant to be used on pasta for 6 persons when served Italian-style. Do the math, it doesn’t seem a lot to me. On the other hand, the tomatoes illustrated are very pretty, but if you are looking for tomato sweetness they are not quite as flavorful as good Roma tomatoes, in season now where I live, or the great San Marzano tomatoes imported from Italy in a can and available at any time.

  5. Ah Marcella,
    I’ve grown a “flat” of Roma tomatoes from seed & I’ve purchased some San Marzano tomato plants for my garden. I’m looking forward to trying them in your recipes.
    However, I stand by my comments.
    Doug

  6. Doug, plants express the character of the soil. San Marzano is not just a tomato variety, but that variety grown on a specific volanic site. In Italy, only San Marzanos grown within a small, and strictly defined area may legally be sold as San Marzano d.o.p., denominazione d’origine protetta. I am an unwavering believer in “fresh”, but when it comes to tomatoes, fresh is not invariably and for every use necessarily the better choice. Incidentally, the tomatoes in your photograph look half-raw. How long did you cook the sauce? There is a curve in the development of the taste of tomatoes which climbs to its apogee when they have cooked long enough, the length depending on the style of the sauce.

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