Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce

Tomatoes are funny things.

For something that travelled across an ocean with conquistadores in the 1500s and was once considered poisonous, they ended up ruling half the world’s kitchens.

Try imagining Italy without them.
Pizza without sauce.
Yeah. Exactly.

And still, somehow, we managed to overcomplicate the hell out of tomato sauce.

Peel this.
Seed that.
Cook for six hours.
Add seventeen herbs and your grandmother’s secret tears.

I tried all of that once. Felt like homework.

What I really wanted was something honest. Something you could make on a Tuesday without needing a culinary degree or a day off work.

Just tomatoes doing what tomatoes do best.

This sauce started years ago when I was broke, a student, and tomatoes were €1 a kilo in summer. That’s when you learn fast. No fancy tricks. Just heat and instinct.

Throw them on a tray. Olive oil. Salt. Roast them hard until the skins blister and the sugars caramelise. The kitchen smells like late summer. Like you did something right.

Then blitz. Simmer. Oregano. Olive oil. Done.

That’s it.

It’s the kind of base sauce that goes everywhere.
Pizza. Pasta. Ragù. Lasagna.
Or turn it Mexican with chile guajillo for tinga or chilaquiles.

Back home in Venlo, I use Tasty Tom’s. Greenhouse grown, sure. But sweet, bright, and familiar. Sometimes the best ingredients aren’t exotic, they’re just the ones you grew up with.

No drama. No chef theatre.

Just tomatoes, treated with respect.

And honestly?
That’s more than enough.

Sevy’s Daily