Lazy Cooks Unite! It’s Time For Weekday Sauce!

Hello, dear readers. How are we all doing today? There’re rumours of an Ontario re-opening of sorts next week. I’m very excited. I need a haircut so badly. I’ve got major cabin fever. And if I’m being honest, I’m getting pretty sick of cooking all the time.

Our supply of groceries was deadly low last night. Four o’clock rolled around and I hadn’t barely given a thought to dinner yet. Liz had been working hard all day, and she deserved a nice, home-cooked meal. Time for one of my oldest recipes to save the day.

Every cook should know how to make an easy, flavourful tomato sauce. This is a great all-purpose sauce, that can be used for any tomato sauce application. It’s a great sauce for any shape of pasta, you could nap a chicken parm with it, use it in a lasagna, even poach eggs in it! It comes together very quickly, with barely any effort or attention. Which makes it the perfect weekday sauce.

This isn’t a silky-smooth emulsified tomato sauce, but it could be if you took a blender to it. Just let it cool completely before blitzing, or you’ll turn it that Chef Boyardee orange. I like a little texture in my tomato sauce, so I like to leave it rustic. But feel free to employ a blender, or a food mill, or whatever your favorite method of sauce-smoothing is.

All the ingredients are pretty common, just know that the better your canned tomatoes, the better this sauce is. Use whole, peeled official D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes and the battle is all but won.

Shelf-stable ingredients and barely an hour of cooking time get you a delicious, multipurpose weekday sauce. If you double the ingredients, you yield enough sauce to freeze for a later date, making this a gift that keeps on giving.

Everyone struggles with a weeknight dinner from time to time. But with this recipe, you’ll never open another jar of over-salted, over-sugared pasta sauce ever again.

Weekday Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 large red onion, peeled and finely diced
• 2 large carrots, peeled and grated
• Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
• 1-2 bay leaves, fresh if possible
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 TBSP crushed red pepper flakes
• 2 TBSP tomato paste
• 1 TBSP dried oregano
• 1 TBSP dried basil
• 1 796mL can whole San Marzano tomatoes and their liquid
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

1. In a large, heavy-bottomed pot or Dutch oven, heat a film of olive oil over medium-low heat. Add the onion and carrot, seasoning with a large pinch of salt. Sweat the vegetables until well-softened, about 10 minutes.
2. Add the bay leaves, garlic and pepper flakes, stirring to combine. Push everything to one side of the pot and add the tomato paste so it’s right on the pot floor. Allow it to cook for about 5 minutes before stirring it into the vegetables.
3. Add the oregano and basil, stirring to combine. Add the tomatoes and their liquid as well as half a can of water. Stir well and bring the sauce to a vigorous simmer over medium heat. Simmer the sauce for 45 minutes to 1 hour, stirring often until the colour has deepened and the sauce has thickened to your liking. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Use right away or cool completely to store in the fridge or freezer.

What could be easier? This sauce is delicious, fast and a no-brainer for an easy dinner. Every cook, pro or not, needs to have a good tomato sauce in their repertoire. It’s one of the basics for home cooking that’ll always keep you fed, happy and away from the jar sauce. Jar sauces are often filled with weird shit and too much salt and sugar. You can do better than that for yourself.

Do you guys have a go-to weekday sauce? Does it resemble this one at all? Let me know in the comments below or shoot me an e-mail. Until next time, babies!