For those who think that some of the best recipes are also the simplest, this time-honored, classic tomato sauce is for you. It's thick, rich, sweet and is the product of just one of the many authentic Italian recipes brought to us by Marcella Hazan. Mrs. Hazan began publishing cookbooks in the 1970s, with the updated compilation, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking , hitting the shelves in 1992. Over the last few years Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter has hit the blogosphere (see smitten kitchen and orangette to name just two).
So far we've used this sauce on homemade gnocchi, penne pasta, and as a pizza sauce and it's fabulous in a variety of situations. We doubled the recipe so that we would have leftovers to freeze and added a little less butter than the original recipe stated. You can use whatever canned tomatoes you prefer. Generally, we use organic whole tomatoes that we pour directly into the stockpot and crush with our hands to get the desired level of chunkiness. Some family members prefer a smoother sauce so we've also been known to use one can of whole tomatoes and one can of pure tomato sauce.
