Pomodoro Sauce Recipe from Italy

Author: Veruska Anconitano, Award-Winning Food Travel Journalist, Sommelier & Outdoor LoverAuthor information
Veruska
About the author
Veruska Anconitano
Veruska is a a food travel journalist with awards to her credit, such as World Best Food Travel Journalist. She holds a certification as a sommelier and she is also an ardent lover of the outdoors. Aside from this, Veruska is a Multilingual SEO and Localization Consultant and co-owns multiple websites that cater to a global audience.
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Being able to use a good pomodoro sauce recipe for your pasta or just as an accompaniment to some bread is a real treat. In fact. way too often people think that preparing a tomato sauce at home is so difficult that it’s not worth the effort.

In reality, making a pomodoro sauce recipe is easy and it’s extremely rewarding: it’s a simple, delicious, and family-friendly way to dress up your pasta, your slice of bread or even your meat.

Below you will learn what is pomodoro sauce, ingredients and step by step recipe, the best type of tomatoes for tomato sauce recipes, and tips and trick to store/prepare your tomato sauce.

Let’s start from the basic…

What is “pomodoro sauce”?

“Pomodoro” means “tomato” in Italian and the pomodoro sauce is jus a fresh tomato sauce. The secret to a great Italian tomato sauce resides in the ingredients: sweet and ripe tomatoes, fresh basil and Italian Extra Virgin olive oil is all you need.

Well, you also need some patience because cooking requires time and this recipe also requires some time if you want to have a good result.

What do you use to prepare a good pomodoro sauce?

As I explained above, it’s all in the ingredients. Remember that Italian food doesn’t require the use of a crazy amount of stuff; it’s rather focused on the use of good stuff, cutting out everything that’s unnecessary.

So, to get a perfect and delicious tomato sauce you only need 5 ingredients:

  • Fresh tomatoes
  • (Italian) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • Garlic
  • Fresh basil
  • Salt

It’s really just a matter of what you use for your sauce: trust me, the superior flavor and taste is well worth the slight premium price of these goods because they will give your sauce a different taste!

To keep it even more simpler, try this very basic Italian tomato sauce and you won’t regret it.

How do you use a homemade pomodoro sauce

Well, we Italians use our tomato sauce with everything. The main use, however, is with pasta (the super famous and easy pasta pomodoro is basically pasta dressed up with tomato sauce). Meatballs also are great if covered in real tomato sauce, and so is every other type of meat.

Meatballs with tomato sauce

Not to mention a toasted slice of bread (bruschetta), which will be the highlight of every dinner party.

And what about pizza?

Best Italian Pizza Recipe

Pomodoro Sauce: Ingredients

  • 800 grams of peeled tomatoes
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • Basil
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Salt
  • Pomodoro Sauce Recipe Step by Step

    1. In a pan pour the extra virgin olive oil together with the peeled clove of garlic cut in half. After 2 minutes of cooking over high heat, remove the garlic, add the peeled tomatoes and season with salt;
    2. Cover with a lid and cook for at least 1 hour over very low heat: stir occasionally. Once cooked, puree the tomatoes in a food processor or blender to obtain a smooth and homogeneous sauce;
    3. Transfer the tomato sauce to the pan again, turn on the very low heat again and add the basil leaves. After a few minutes you can turn off the heat, cover the sauce with a lid and keep it warm;
    4. Use the pomodoro sauce to dress up your pasta or your meatballs or anything else.

    Preparation time: 1 hour and 30 minutes

    Pasta Pomodoro Recipe Italian

    The best type of tomatoes for tomato sauce

    On a general note, every time you wanna make a tomato sauce recipe you need to have juicy and red tomatoes, with a low acidity and high sugar levels: this is the conditio sine qua non for this pomodoro sauce recipe.

    You can use:

    • San Marzano Tomatoes: the most incredible ones, juicy and red. Invest some money because these tomatoes are really something else;
    • Vine-ripened Tomatoes: another great variety to use when making this pomodoro sauce recipe;
    • Homegrown Garden Tomatoes: if they’re juicy and red, go for it!

    It may be very hard to get really flavoursome tomatoes outside the Mediterranean, so don’t be afraid to make sauces using canned plum tomatoes instead.

    How to store your Pomodoro Sauce

    Once is ready, you can store your tomato sauce in different ways:

    • In a jar: put the sauce in a sterilised jar (learn how to sterilise jars), close the lid, check the vacuum by giving a gentle push with your thumb in the center of the lid and you’re good to go. Your tomato sauce can be stored in sterilised jars for up to 1 year, far from the sunlight. Once opened, you will have to use the sauce within 2-3 days;
    • In the freezer: bring your sauce to room temperature, store in an airtight freezer-safe container in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, and then freeze for up to 3-4 months. Remember that if you freeze your tomato sauce, when thawed it could become too watery;
    • In the refrigerator: bring your sauce to room temperature, store in an airtight freezer-safe container in the refrigerator for max 2 days, making sure the lid is sealed so that no humidity will enter in.

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