Best Winter Tomato Sauce Recipes

BROILED POLENTA WITH WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• To prepare basic polenta:
• In a heavy saucepan bring water and salt to a boil and gradually whisk in cornmeal in a thin stream. Cook polenta over moderately low heat (it should be barely boiling), stirring constantly, until very thick and pulls away from side of pan, about 40 minutes for cornmeal and about 15 minutes for instant polenta. Remove pan from heat and cover to keep warm. Stir polenta just before using. Polenta will keep warm, covered, about 20 minutes. Makes about 3 cups.
• To prepare the polenta:
• In a bowl stir together warm polenta and Fontina until smooth. Pour polenta into a lightly oiled shallow 1 1/2-quart bowl and cool. Polenta may be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered.
• To prepare sauce:
• In a large skillet heat 2 tablespoons oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté onion with salt to taste, stirring, until golden and tender, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and sauté, stirring, 1 minute. Add tomatoes with juice, stirring to break up tomatoes, and simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Stir in parsley. Keep sauce warm.
• Preheat broiler.
• Unmold polenta onto a cutting board and cut into 3/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices in one layer in a lightly oiled shallow baking pan and brush slices with additional oil.
• Broil polenta about 3 inches from heat until edges are golden, about 5 minutes. Turn polenta over and broil until edges are golden, about 3 minutes more.
• Arrange polenta on a platter and spoon sauce over it. Serve polenta with Parmesan.
• Note: In the traditional method of cooking polenta, forty minutes of constant stirring is required to achieve a lumpless texture and fragrant flavor. However, Italian-food expert Marcella Hazan has developed a method that involves very little stirring during this time. We believe it produces a very good polenta, one nearly as flavorful and smooth as the traditional procedure. To make satisfactory polenta in a real hurry, an imported instant polenta (precooked cornmeal) is available. This cooks in a mere fifteen minutes.

RICH WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a small bowl soak dried tomatoes in boiling water 30 minutes and drain in a sieve over a bowl. Chop soaked tomatoes coarse.
• While dried tomatoes are soaking, in a saucepan cook onion and garlic in butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Add canned tomatoes with juice, stirring to break up tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, and salt and pepper to taste and simmer sauce, uncovered, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes.
• Purée sauce through the fine disk of a food mill or force it through a coarse sieve set over a bowl. Sauce may be made 1 week ahead and chilled, covered.

PORK CASSOULET WITH PORK CONFIT AND WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Bring 4 quarts water to boil in large pot. Add beans. Boil 3 minutes. Remove pot from heat, cover, and let stand 1 hour. Drain; return beans to pot. Using kitchen string, tie parsley, thyme, and bay leaves in double layer of cheesecloth; add to pot. Add remaining 4 quarts water, pancetta, onion, garlic, salt, and pepper to beans; bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer over medium-low heat until beans are just tender, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Drain beans, reserving 2 cups cooking liquid. Discard herb bundle, onion, and garlic. Transfer pancetta to work surface (reserve pancetta for wine sauce).
• Heat olive oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions to pot and sauté until tender and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add wine; boil until liquid is reduced by half, stirring occasionally, about 6 minutes. Add reserved juices from confit. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, cut reserved pancetta into 1/2-inch cubes. Heat heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat; add pancetta and sauté until beginning to turn brown and crisp, about 4 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer pancetta to wine sauce. Add Winter Tomato Sauce to pot; season to taste with salt and pepper.
• Preheat oven to 400°F. Heat 2 heavy large skillets over medium heat. Divide sausages among skillets; cover and cook until brown and cooked through, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes. Transfer sausages to work surface. Cool slightly, then cut into 2-inch pieces.
• Spoon 1/3 of beans (about 4 cups) into 8-quart ovenproof pot, spreading in even layer. Arrange half of confit and half of sausages over beans. Pour 1/3 of wine sauce (about 2 1/3 cups) over meat. Spoon half of remaining beans (about 4 cups) over sauce. Arrange remaining confit and sausages over beans. Pour half of remaining sauce over meat (about 2 1/3 cups). Spoon remaining beans over sauce, then pour remaining sauce over beans. (Can be prepared 2 days ahead. Cover cassoulet and reserved cooking liquid separately and chill. Let stand at room temperature 2 hours before continuing.) Drizzle enough reserved bean cooking liquid over beans to barely submerge if needed. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over. Drizzle breadcrumbs with olive oil.
• Bake cassoulet uncovered until bubbling around edges and crumbs are beginning to brown, about 1 hour.
• Emergo beans can be purchased through chefshop.com, and heirloom French horticultural beans can be purchased through beanbag.net. If you can't find them, Great Northern beans or cannellini (white kidney beans) will also work.

MEATBALLS IN WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• In a large bowl soak bread crumbs in milk 10 minutes. Finely chop onions. Add onions and remaining meatball ingredients to bread crumb mixture and with your hands blend together until just combined well (do not overmix). Form mixture into walnut-size balls and arrange on large trays or baking sheets.
• In a large heavy skillet heat 2 tablespoons oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and brown meatballs in batches without crowding, shaking skillet to maintain round shape and adding remaining oil as necessary. Transfer meatballs as browned (and any browned onions that fall from meatballs) with a slotted spoon to a 7- to 8-quart heavy kettle.
• In a large sieve set over a bowl drain tomatoes, reserving juice, and chop. To meatballs add chopped tomatoes with reserved juice, garlic, and oregano and simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Transfer meatballs with a slotted spoon to a bowl and keep warm, loosely covered with foil. Briskly simmer sauce until reduced to about 2 cups, about 25 minutes. Season sauce with salt and pepper and gently stir in meatballs. (Meatballs in sauce may be made 3 days ahead and cooled completely, uncovered, before being chilled, covered. Reheat meatballs in sauce before serving.)
• Gently stir parsley into meatballs and sauce.

WINTER TOMATO SAUCE

Steps:

• Using fingers, split open tomatoes; remove and discard seeds. Chop tomatoes; reserve juice. Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add chopped tomatoes and reserved juice and all remaining ingredients; stir to combine. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium and simmer uncovered until sauce is reduced to 4 cups, stirring often, about 1 hour.
• Remove bay leaf and any stems from herbs. Pass sauce through food mill fitted with large holes. Alternately, transfer to processor. Using on/off turns, process to coarse puree.