Tomato c with Onion and Butter

Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter

• 1 800-gram can chopped tomatoes
• 70 grams unsalted butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
• salt to taste

- Place the tomatoes (with all their juices), butter, and onion in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat.

- Bring this to a simmer then lower the heat and simmer gently, uncovered, for 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free from the tomatoes.  Stir occasionally, mashing tomato chunks with the back of a wooden spoon when you come upon them.  Salt to taste.

- Remove and discard the onion.

That’s it!  Serve with your favorite pasta noodle and, if you’d like, some freshly grated Parmesan. Although just plain with the noodles is already wonderful.  The sauce is lovely.  It is sweet and velvety and rich, and really a perfect basic tomato sauce to have in one’s repertoire.  You can also use it as a jumping off point for other variation but please don’t forgo trying it plain, just generously spooned over some hot noodles, eaten from a bowl.

Anyone with very little time on their hands and a hankering for good, honest deliciousness will appreciate this sauce.  It may just be the easiest thing I have ever made.  The original recipe uses canned whole tomatoes but I used canned chopped tomatoes here because that it what I had on hand.  It does go without saying that the better quality of canned tomatoes you use, the better your sauce will be.  Oh, and I didn’t discard the onion.  I placed it in an omelet for breakfast the next day…waste not, want not!

And yes, my little girl was very happy with it and it marked the first time she finished her lunch at school!  How excited she was to tell me and show me her empty lunch box.  It’s moments like this that make any lack of sleep, or less than glamorous appearance, so absolutely worth it.