Recipe

Long-simmer Tomato Ragu

4 generous servings or 6 light · prep 20 min · cook 6 h

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Authored by the maintainer; family recipe.

Ingredients

for the sauce

• 1.2 kg ripe plum tomatoes — example-producer
• 2 medium onions, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, finely diced
• 60 ml extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp fine sea salt, plus more to taste

to finish

• 1 small bunch basil, stems reserved
• Black pepper

Method

1. Blister tomatoes in batches in a wide pan over high heat until skins split, ~2 min per batch. Crush with a wooden spoon. Set aside. · 10 min
2. Sweat onion, garlic, and celery in olive oil over low heat until translucent, no color. 12–15 minutes. · 15 min
3. Add crushed tomatoes, salt, and basil stems. Bring to a bare simmer.
4. Cook, partially covered, at the lowest possible heat for 5–6 hours. Stir every 30 minutes. The sauce is done when a wooden spoon leaves a clean trail through the bottom of the pan for two seconds. · 360 min
5. Fish out basil stems. Off-heat, tear in fresh basil leaves and crack black pepper. Adjust salt.

Notes

Hold-over notes: cools and keeps three days refrigerated, six months frozen.
Doubles cleanly. Halves cleanly. Will not scale to 6× — the surface area
needed for evaporation outpaces the largest pot a home kitchen can hold.