I am a proud tomato snob. One should only buy fresh tomatoes in August and September, otherwise canned tomatoes are a better option. There is nothing worse than a pink, mealy, gassed tomato that has been flown thousands of miles to disappoint you.
Strolling through the Greenmarket this weekend I picked up a dozen San Marzano style tomatoes grown in New Jersey. To be honest the tomato is probably the best thing to come out of New Jersey. So I decided to make a quick three ingredient tomato sauce after work tonight. All you need is olive oil, garlic and tomatoes.
3 Ingredient Tomato Sauce
12 San Marzano style or Plum Tomatoes
2 cloves of Garlic
Olive Oil (enough to coat the bottom of the plan)
Coat the pan with olive oil and add sliced garlic for a minute before adding the diced tomatoes – salt and pepper to taste. That makes five ingredients but who is really counting. I don’t have the patients to de-seed and skin the tomatoes and frankly don’t think that it makes the sauce significantly better, the natural sugars overpower any bitterness from the seeds. Cook the sauce on medium heat for about 10 minutes which should leave it a little wet so that when you toss your pasta in for the last minute it will soak up that last bit of tomato water. If you are using the sauce for a protein like fish or chicken, think about cooking it for 2-5 more minutes so it thickens up a bit more.
Remember tomatoes will be gone soon so consider freezing or canning the sauce for winter…
