Tony's Recipe of the Month: Red Sauce

Tony Abato, our VP of Sales here at Intech Services, and an amazing Italian chef, will be sharing one of his delicious recipes every month. Trust us, you don't want to miss out on what Tony's cooking! 

Your Basic Red
"Less is More"

Let's not make this more complex then it needs to be. Sauces for pasta don't to have to simmer "all day," and they don't have to be made with long lists of hard to find, expensive ingredients. They shouldn't come from a a jar. Jars full of red sauce make my Grammom very sad.

The following is as basic and pure a red sauce as you'll find.  It's lite and fresh and healthy and takes all of about 1/2 an hour to prepare.  

This my "go-to red."

Next month, I'll give you an Intech favorite: Aglio e olio.

-Tony

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 yellow onion, cut in big thick round slices
3 garlic cloves, cut lengthwise in thick slices
2 big 28 oz. cans or 1.5 pounds fresh Roma tomatoes, peeled, cleaned, and diced in 1/4 inch pieces
2 tablespoons sugar (only use if cooking with canned tomatoes)
Salt  
Pepper
Dash of crushed red pepper
3 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped fine
1 cup dry white wine
Parmegiano-reggiano or asiago

Preparation: 

Heat up oil and butter in a Teflon® coated pot. Throw in the garlic and onion. Stay on top of it, flipping and moving all the pieces around so they don't burn. When the garlic is a light brown, remove and discard. Leave the onion in and add the tomatoes.

Put on medium heat to a low boil for 10 minutes or so, stirring the pot often. Stir in the white wine and bring it to a low simmer. Stir in remaining ingredients and remove the onions.

Simmer for 30 minutes or so until you reach desired consistency. Try not to go much longer than that as this is a marinara, not a bolognese. Because there's no meat in the sauce, there isn't any oil to cook in or simmer off, so 30 minutes should do it. 

This sauce is perfect with spaghetti: light enough for angel hair, and hearty enough for spaghetti. It's also great as the sauce with eggplant parmegiano or ricotta stuffed pastas.


Keep checking the blog to see Tony's Recipe of the Month.  Did you try this recipe?  Let us know what you thought of it and if you have questions for the chef, post them below!