Classic Tomate Sauce

By
Danilo Alfaro
Danlio Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro
Danilo Alfaro has published more than 800 recipes and tutorials focused on making complicated culinary techniques approachable to home cooks.
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Updated on 06/16/21
Add pasta sauce to the mixture in skillet

 The Spruce
Prep: 15 mins
Cook: 2 hrs
Total: 2 hrs 15 mins
Servings: 8 to 10
Nutrition Facts (per serving)
365 Calories
17g Fat
21g Carbs
35g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 8 to 10
Amount per serving
Calories 365
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 17g 21%
Saturated Fat 6g 29%
Cholesterol 118mg 39%
Sodium 727mg 32%
Total Carbohydrate 21g 8%
Dietary Fiber 5g 18%
Total Sugars 10g
Protein 35g
Vitamin C 20mg 100%
Calcium 110mg 8%
Iron 4mg 22%
Potassium 1017mg 22%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

This classic Tomate Sauce recipe is one of the five mother sauces of classical cuisine. It's also the starting point for making the traditional Spanish sauce, Creole sauce, Portuguese sauce or Provençale sauce.

It is similar to, but more complicated than, the basic tomato sauce that is commonly served with pasta. Here's the recipe for the basic tomato pasta sauce.

Some versions of this tomate sauce recipe use a roux to thicken the sauce, but this isn't really necessary. The tomatoes themselves are enough to thicken the sauce.

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Ingredients

  • 2 ounces salt pork, diced

  • 2 cups onions, diced

  • 1 cup carrots, diced

  • 1 cup celery, diced

  • 1 garlic clove, minced

  • 2 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes

  • 1 quart veal stock, or chicken stock

  • 1 ham bone

  • 1 dash kosher salt, or to taste

  • 1 dash sugar, or to taste

For Sachet:

Steps to Make It

  1. Gather the ingredients.

  2. Preheat oven to 300 F.

  3. Tie the sachet ingredients into a cheesecloth sack using a piece of kitchen twine.

  4. In a heavy, oven-safe Dutch oven, render the salt pork over low heat until the fat liquefies.

  5. Add the carrots, celery, onions and garlic and sauté for a few minutes until the onion is translucent but not brown.

  6. Add the tomatoes, the ham bone, the stock and the sachet.

  7. Bring to a boil, cover, and transfer the pot to the oven. Simmer in the oven, partially covered, for two hours.

  8. Remove from oven. Remove sachet and ham bone and purée sauce in a blender or food processor until smooth, working in batches if necessary.

  9. Season to taste with Kosher salt and a small amount of sugar — just enough to cut the acid edge of the tomatoes. Serve hot. If not serving the sauce right away, keep it covered and warm until you're ready to use it.

Use Caution When Blending Hot Ingredients

Steam expands quickly in a blender, and can cause ingredients to splatter everywhere or cause burns. To prevent this, fill the blender only one-third of the way up, vent the top, and cover with a folded kitchen towel while blending.

Recipe Variation

  • For a vegetarian version of this sauce, you can leave out the ham bone and substitute olive oil for the salt pork.