Sauce Number Two

So, this post is actually from a few weeks ago - internet difficulties kept me from posting it. Now my garden is under a fresh 22" blanket of snow, summer suddenly seems so long ago, and I have lots of green tomatoes slowly ripening in the basement. Here's a quick peek back in time, with some luscious tomatoes to warm you on a cold snowy night, and a recipe to put on your roster for next year:
If you still have a bounty of tomatoes in your corner of the world, and the shortening days have you feeling the urgency to lock all that summer flavor up in jars before the snows fall, here’s a family favorite.

It’s a bit of a variation on a classic recipe from Marcella Hazan, the Julia Child of Italian cooking, combined with a staple sauce often made on the farm in Tuscany where I WWOOFed.

The sauce is descriptively dubbed “Sauce Number Two” in Marcella’s book. It is incredibly quick and easy to prepare, and captures all the fresh summer flavors of the garden beautifully. Using plum tomatoes or a similar sauce/paste tomato is important because they don’t contain as much water as other tomatoes. This leaves you with a nice thick sauce that doesn’t require much cooking down, keeping all the flavors bright and separate. If you have an abundance of tomatoes, this recipe can easily be doubled, tripled, you name it. You may have to increase cooking time slightly if you do.

2 lbs fresh plum tomatoes (like Romas)
2/3 c chopped carrot
2/3 c chopped celery
2/3 c chopped onion
1 TBSP chopped garlic
1/3 c olive oil
salt
sugar
lemon juice

Cut the tomatoes in half, and get them started over medium heat in a covered pot for 10 minutes. Add the carrot, celery, onion, garlic, and 1 tsp salt, and cook uncovered at a strong simmer for about 15-20 minutes, or until the vegetables are starting to loosen up, but are still maintaining their individuality. The carrots and celery should be a little soft, but still ‘al dente.’ Run the sauce through the food processor. I like to puree half the sauce until it is smooth, and the other half I leave a little chunky so the sauce has some tooth to it and you can see little bits of carrots and celery. Return to heat, stir in olive oil, and gently simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.

At this point, depending on how sweet your carrots were and how salty your celery, you can adjust to taste with salt, a pinch of sugar or a squeeze of lemon juice. Perfect in its simplicity, it is ready to serve or freeze. Variations before serving include adding some fresh chopped herbs like basil or organo, or a sprinkle of red pepper flakes or cayenne. The northern Italians on the farm wouldn’t dream of contaminating the sauce with garlic, so you can omit for another option. Capellini or angel hair are my favorite pastas for this delicate sauce, especially Dad’s homemade pasta. It’s also great with roasted eggplant or spaghetti squash.