What You'll Need
Scale
- 1 Stick high quality butter
- 1 28oz can of tomato puree, San Marzano if possible
- 1 large onion, halved
- 1 lb. pasta
- Grated parmesan or pecorino cheese
What You'll Do
- Take a small saucepan and submerge your onion halves and butter into the tomato puree (bonus points if you create a smiley face out of them).
- Place the saucepan on the stove and simmer on medium-high for about 5 minutes. The butter will start to melt and you’ll smell the onion cooking.
- Here is the easiest yet hardest part: Lower your heat as low as it goes, step away from the stove, and leave your pot UNCOVERED alone for the next hour to hour and a half. Do. Not. Stir during this time. Literally, don’t even touch the pan. Pretend it never happened. When the contents of the pan look like picture 5 & 6 below, we have reached Tomato Butter Sauce Nirvana.
- Remove the pan from stove, and grab a bowl, a whisk, and some tongs. Gently remove the onion halves and set aside safely in a bowl to do one of the following with latter:
- Eat as is.
- Chop up into a relish and serve with meat.
- Chop up and serve on toast with ricotta or other cheese.
- Throw them into a vegetable soup.
- Blend part of them back into the Tomato Butter Sauce, which many people do, but I do not!
- Grab your whisk and mix the tomato puree, clarified butter, and delicious memory of onion together until 3 become 1.
- And there she is—our perfect tomato sauce with a flavor unlike anything you’ve ever tasted. Serve over orrechiette or rigatoni with a sprinkle of grated pecorino or parmesan, and prepare to become obsessed.
- Side note: I typically don’t put any fresh herbs on top. It doesn’t need it. Also, if I want meat with this meal, I cook it separately and serve it on the side. More often that not, I choose onion option 2 and make a relish for said meat, and it’s perfection.