Make This Tomato Sauce Recipe a Staple in Your Home

It‘s easy to find jarred tomato sauce at your local grocery store, but nothing beats a homemade product made with quality ingredients. The Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) has provided the perfect tomato sauce recipe for anyone looking to upgrade their pasta nights.

Leif Evans, chef-instructor of culinary arts at ICE’s New York City campus, has some tip on selecting the right red wine for cooking. “You don’t have to get the most expensive wine because [cooking with] a nice red wine is going to mess up the wine,” he tells Mental Floss. “But you also don’t want to get the cheapest thing either because [it] probably won’t taste that good, and that’s just going to get concentrated into the flavor of the sauce.” 

In other words, a red wine within the mid-price range is best. According The Wine Ninjas, you can find great-tasting Merlots, Shirazes, and Zinfandels at affordable prices, while Pinot Noir generally doesn’t work as well as a cooking wine. If you can’t find the wine you want in your area, you may have better luck with one of these top-rated online wine shops.

To make the tomato sauce, start by cutting all the vegetables into chunks and throwing them into a food processor. If you don’t have a processor, cut the veggies into smaller pieces and put them in a blender instead. Either way, you may have to stop the appliance and scrape the sides until the mixture is smooth.

Next, place a Dutch oven on a stove burner, set the stove to low heat, and pour a generous amount of oil into the dish. Once the oil gets hot, add the blended veggies, red pepper flakes, and a pinch of salt to the Dutch oven and let it simmer.

Once the water has evaporated, pour in the red wine and let it reduce, allowing the liquid to thicken and gain flavor as it simmers. In this case, you’ll want to reduce the wine by two thirds. At this point, you can stir in the tomatoes and let the sauce sit over low heat for an hour. After sprinkling it with salt and pepper, the sauce is ready to enjoy with pasta.

The Institute of Culinary Education is a renowned culinary school with a diverse curricula. At its New York City and Los Angeles locations, students can learn about everything from the plant-based culinary arts to hospital and hotel management. To learn more about ICE, visit its website.

Tomato Sauce

Serves: 4

Ingredients
2 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 small carrot, peeled and cut into small chunks
1/2 red onion, cut into chunks
2 ribs of celery, cut into chunks
5 cloves garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup red wine
Olive oil

1. Combine carrot, celery, onion, and garlic in a food processor and blend until smooth. 
2. Preheat a Dutch oven with a generous glug of olive oil. 
3. Cook the blended vegetables with the red pepper flakes and a pinch of salt on low heat until softened, and all the water has cooked out. 
4. Add the red wine and reduce by two thirds. 
5. Stir in the crushed tomatoes and simmer on low for one hour. Season with salt and pepper, and serve with your favorite pasta.

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