Tomato Sauce with Garlic and Basil
Heavenly! That is all that I need to say about this sauce. Amazing aroma, and mouth watering flavor. It is such a simple sauce to make and definitely one of my favorites.
I started out with canned San Marzano tomatoes, because the local tomatoes are not yet at their peak of flavor. I simmered these with some good extra virgin olive oil, five minced cloves of garlic, salt and some freshly ground black pepper for about a half hour. When the oil had started to come to the top, I removed it from the heat and mixed in some basil leaves that I had torn into small pieces. I served this with spaghettini. Since Marcella didn’t specifically mention topping this with parmesan I tried it first without it just to get the authentic flavor and it was great. Of course, I am so used to topping my sauces with cheese, I did add some when I sat down to eat. Michael was oohing and ahhing over this one. This sauce will be a staple in our house from here on out.
Beth, basil is one of my favorite herbs and probably my favorite for flavoring tomato sauce. I think it is because it is such a familiar combination here in St. Louis, don’t you?
Because of immigration patterns, the Italian influence on this city has been primarily from Campania south – and mostly Sicilian.
Beth responds- Yes, well the Sicilian influence in my house is great indeed!
Yum Beth, it looks like summer in a bowl!
Looks great – I appreciate that canned tomatoes can be used. Imagine the different flavour we’d get using the tomatoes in the store right now? BAH
Beth responds-Yes, the tomatoes in the stores right now are really horrible. I have been trying to grow some heirloom tomatoes on my own, but our weather is so out of sync here now that my plants look pitiful. Hopefully, at some point this summer we will have great tomatoes to choose from. I can’t wait!
It is so simple one is tempted to say it’s fool proof, but in fact the simpler something is, the fewer the steps and the ingredients, the easier it is to go wrong. If the tomatoes are less than meaty and naturally ripe and the oil is mediocre and you let the garlic turn brown that sauce can be horrible. Thank you for doing everything right, Beth. I did not suggest in my recipe that you top with cheese because the path I generally, but not invariably, follow is no cheese with an olive oil sauce, top with cheese if there is butter in the sauce. The simpler and purer the olive oil sauce is – and this is one of the purest and most transparent – the more reluctant I am to muddy up the flavor with cheese. There are of course exceptions and one of the most obvious is pesto where olive oil and cheese are inseparable.