I have always enjoyed making tomato sauce from scratch. I can recall the day I went into labor with Ronnie who is now about to turn 11. I was in active labor but had left my huge pot of tomato sauce simmering while I went to see my doctor that morning. I returned to finish canning up my sauce with some pretty strong contractions only two or three minutes apart and refused to leave until I had canned up the last jar. I took two jars with me to give to my doctor. I don’t think he was used to women showing up for labor holding jars of tomato sauce.
A few times a year I will get into a sauce making frenzy of peeling tomatoes, chopping onions and garlic and herbs and spices. Throwing in my best dark wine and and standing by the stove which requires a good part of the day followed by me wiping up the remaining sauce in the pot with a long stick of french bread so as not to waste any : )
Then one day about two years ago I was surfing food blogs and came across this sauce. This luscious sauce only has three ingredients, onion, tomato and butter. It has become my new favorite and honestly I think I love it enough to replace my own and it pratically makes itself. It is actually quite famous in the food blogging world and rightly so. Those bloggers are not easily impressed so you might want to take notice.
I can’t even say why chopping an onion in half and throwing it into a pot of canned whole tomatoes with a few tablespoons of butter makes this so darned good but it does. It just does.
My only changes to the recipe is that I chop up the onion and leave it in the sauce because we like the texture but you could totally do away with that step. I should also throw in that it makes a great margheritta pizza sauce.
and this is my secret weapon for chopping up lots of onions. The kids thought I should show you what I look like with them on. Um, not a chance : )
So to resume, this sauce rocks and it is super duper easy and sooo cheap to make. I make enough to last a few months and pop the jars into the freezer since you should not can sauces that have butter in them.
OTB Sauce
28 oz can of whole tomatoes. (Please spend another dollar and buy organic, this recipe is so cheap that you can afford it.)
5 tbsp butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and chopped in half
salt to taste
Put all your ingredients into a sauce pot and cook on low to medium for about 30 to 45 minutes until the tomatoes break up (I mush them with my spoon to help out). Thats it, get out the french bread and wipe the pot clean after you put up your sauce.
We had the radish pizza with OTB sauce on Tuesday night & it was a hit! I still need to give the no knead dough/bread a try. I am not sure I have the proper kind of pot to bake it in. The sauce was so delicious that I am using the leftovers (I made a big batch…common sense in a big family!) in my vegetarian chili tonight. Thanks again!