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The mother of Italian cooking in America, cookbook author Marcella Hazan, still makes headlines for her varied yet equally delicious tomato sauce recipes that she published in the 1970s. One of the original defenders of the sun-ripened tomato, Hazan elevated the fruit in all its forms, but decried how she found it in American supermarkets, “picked half ripe, gassed, shuttled great distances, and artificially quickened back to life.”
In The Classic Italian cookbook from 1973, Hazan shared not one, but five tomato sauce recipes. (Perhaps to provide delicious alternatives for her fresh tomato-deprived readers.) One of the most famous, "Tomato Sauce III" requires no seasoning, no olive oil, and no chopping. “What does it have?” Hazan wrote, anticipating home cooks’ surprise. “Pure sweet tomato taste, at its most appealing.”
Award-winning chef Cathy Whims from Portland, Oregon, loves this recipe. Whims studied with Hazan in Italy, right before the Italian elder stopped giving cooking classes, and became a lifelong admirer.
In Portland, home cooks and fans of Hazan can experience a direct interpretation of Hazan's cooking by visiting Nostrana. There, chef Whims pays tribute to the cookbook author by keeping a version of “Tomato Sauce III” on the menu.
Here is her rendition of the classic, now iconic, recipe:
“Tomato Butter #3" (serve with capellini)
Ingredients:
1 28 oz. can Italian plum tomatoes (preferably San Marzano*)
1 stick unsalted butter
1 medium onion, peeled and halved
pinch of sugar
Salt
* Summer Variation: Substitute 2 lbs. fresh ripe plum tomatoes, peeled
Method:
- Crush tomatoes with hands into a medium sauce pan, adding juice as well.
- Add butter, onion, salt and sugar.
- Cook at a slow but steady simmer, uncovered until fat separates from tomatoes, about 45 minutes.
- Discard cooked onion and add salt to taste.
