Sauce Tomate

Ingredients

• 56 g diced salt pork (check below for vegetarian option)

• 4 garlic cloves, minced

• 1 medium yellow onion, diced

• 1 cup carrots, diced

• 1 cup celery, diced

• 2 x 795 g cans crushed tomatoes, such as San Marzano (or 1.6 kg fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced)

• 946 ml veal stock (or chicken or veg stock)

• 1 ham bone (check below for vegetarian option)

• herb sachet: 4 parsley sprigs, 1 bay leaf, 2 sprigs thyme tied in cheesecloth

• kosher salt and black pepper, to taste

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 148° C.

In an oven-safe cast iron pot, cook the pork over low heat until the fat melts.

In a pan, add the garlic, onions, carrots, and celery, increase to medium heat, and cook until soft and golden, 3-4 minutes.

Add the raw tomatoes along with their juices, the stock, ham bone and herb bouquet. Bring to a boil, cover with lid and transfer to the oven. Simmer in the oven, covered loosely for two hours. Alternatively, you can transfer the sauce to a slow cooker and cook on low heat for 4 hours.

Remove from the oven, discard ham bone and herb bouquet. Let cool slightly, and purée sauce in a blender or food processor until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

The sauce may be used immediately, refrigerated for 3 or 4 days, or frozen up to 6 months.

Note: For a vegetarian-friendly version, skip the ham bone and replace the salt pork with 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.

Recipe by MasterClass

About the Sauce

Tomato sauce! What more do we need to say about one of the most favoured and widely used sauces the world over. Sure, you can talk about ketchup, too, but we’re referring to authentic, richly red, tangy and thick tomato sauce which makes a spaghetti with meatballs truly irresistible!

Tomatoes have a rich flavour, high water content and soft flesh which breaks down easily, rendering the right composition to thicken into a sauce when stewed, without the need for thickeners such as roux, used in the other mother sauces. It works most commonly in Italian and Spanish dishes such as a Pasta Arrabiatta, for one, and is well-known in Creole and Cajun cuisine as well.

In French Classical cuisine, as one of the five mother sauces, sauce tomate is made using ingredients such as salted belly of pork, onions, bay leaves, thyme, fresh tomatoes, and other spices and herbs. Rustle it all up and voila, your sauce tomate is ready for the using, sensuously so!