A simple tomato sauce

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From our Midsummer 2007 newsletter (PDF)

Ah, tomatoes. They’re here at last, ripe, tangy, bursting with the essential taste of summer. Now that tomatoes taste the way tomatoes are intended to taste, Marcella Hazan’s simple fresh sauce for pasta is among the best ways to celebrate their all-too-brief season. Your farmers’ market vendor will be delighted to supply you with several pounds of gorgeous tomatoes.
Serves 4

Ingredients

2   lbs of ripe tomatoes (or more, if you plan to freeze portions for winter meals)
1-2  onions, peeled and cut in half
      Salt
5 T  butter

Directions

1. Blanch tomatoes: plunge in boiling water for one minute. Remove and drain.
2. When cool enough to handle, skin them and cut up in coarse pieces.
3. Put prepared tomatoes in saucepan. Add butter, onions and salt.
4. Cook uncovered at a slow simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally and mashing large pieces of tomato with the back of your spoon. Taste for salt.
5. Discard onion before serving. Toss with pasta.

Adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan.

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