Almost spit it out

[jpellett251]

I was making a tomato sauce a few nights ago with some san marzano tomatoes.  I've started cooking my tomato sauces differently recently after watching that vapid Chef Academy show, which in the midst of its almost unwatchable drama actually has some good ideas from the chef.  Start with tomatoes in a dry pan, add salt and dried spices and let it cook down.  I always change it up and don't remember what spices I used this night, but it ended up being probably the best sauce I had ever made.  I realized there wasn't enough though, so I asked my girlfriend to hand me another can of tomatoes.  I open it up without thinking about and dump about half the can in, then try the sauce to see how it should be re-seasoned and what the hell just happened!?  A bitterness has overwhelmed everything and my mind is reeling.  Then I see it: this was a can of Hunt's fire roasted garlic tomatoes.  God, why?  Why is this made and why is it in our house? 

[HaagenDazs]

That's too bad.  Perhaps they charred the garlic to the point where it was inedible?

[mikeamor]

I've lost count of the number of times we have thought we were getting something like a can of beans and it turns out to be a can of beans with something gross like "beans and grape jelly".  They package them so identically and they get mixed up on the store shelf so that no matter how vigilant we are, we still seem to get the errant weird one every so often.  We have picked up the sauce with roasted garlic by accident before too and it is pretty bad.  Sorry for your loss? 

[Northside Food]

Yeah, i accidentally grabbed a couple cans of tomatoes packed with onions a few weeks ago.  Fortunately, it wasn't inedible, but it was still not what I wanted.

[Hrothgar]

Brilliant bare-ass-simple tomato sauce recipe we've started using recently:

1 28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes
1 medium onion
5 Tbsp. butter

Pour tomatoes in medium sauce pan. Add butter. Peel onion and cut in half along the hemisphere. Deposit halves in sauce. Simmer for 45 mins or until the onion gets mushy and fat is visible as small droplets throughout the sauce. As you check on it, you can smoosh the tomatoes against the side of the pot, but they'll mostly melt on their own. Remove onion and add salt, pepper, and possibly sugar to taste. Serve over pasta.

[LizR]

Brilliant bare-ass-simple tomato sauce recipe we've started using recently:

1 28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes
1 medium onion
5 Tbsp. butter

Pour tomatoes in medium sauce pan. Add butter. Peel onion and cut in half along the hemisphere. Deposit halves in sauce. Simmer for 45 mins or until the onion gets mushy and fat is visible as small droplets throughout the sauce. As you check on it, you can smoosh the tomatoes against the side of the pot, but they'll mostly melt on their own. Remove onion and add salt, pepper, and possibly sugar to taste. Serve over pasta.

Just so Loundry doesn't accidentally try this recipe, credit needs to go to Marcella Hazan on this one. And I agree that it is wonderful - way more than the sum of its parts.

[jpellett251]

Now I realize that I never finished the recipe.  After letting the tomatoes and dried spices cook down untouched, smash the tomatos and add a bit of crushed garlic and olive oil and more salt.  Let oil infuse for a few minutes, toss in some basil and you're done.  By far the best sauce I've had.

[Northside Food]

Brilliant bare-ass-simple tomato sauce recipe we've started using recently:

1 28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes
1 medium onion
5 Tbsp. butter

Pour tomatoes in medium sauce pan. Add butter. Peel onion and cut in half along the hemisphere. Deposit halves in sauce. Simmer for 45 mins or until the onion gets mushy and fat is visible as small droplets throughout the sauce. As you check on it, you can smoosh the tomatoes against the side of the pot, but they'll mostly melt on their own. Remove onion and add salt, pepper, and possibly sugar to taste. Serve over pasta.

I pulled this recipe off of Smitten Kitchen a few weeks ago. I agree, it's a deceptively easy and delicious sauce.  Makes spaghetti night so much easier.

[Loundry]

Just so Loundry doesn't accidentally try this recipe, credit needs to go to Marcella Hazan on this one. And I agree that it is wonderful - way more than the sum of its parts.

I thought the Marcella Hazan recipe used a whole stick of butter?