Healthy Homemade Tomato Sauce

Karsten Moran for The New York Times

Quick Fresh Tomato Sauce

DAVID TANIS

INGREDIENTS

• 5 pounds tomatoes

• ¾ teaspoon salt

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 1 garlic clove, halved

• 1 basil sprig

• 1 bay leaf

PREPARATION

1. Cut tomatoes in half horizontally. Squeeze out the seeds and discard, if you wish. Press the cut side of tomato against the large holes of a box grater and grate tomato flesh into a bowl. Discard skins. You should have about 4 cups.

2. Put tomato pulp in a low wide saucepan over high heat. Add salt, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, basil and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a brisk simmer.

3. Reduce the sauce by almost half, stirring occasionally, to produce about 2 1/2 cups medium-thick sauce, 10 to 15 minutes. Taste and adjust salt. It will keep up to 5 days in the refrigerator or may be frozen.

*This recipe was originally published in the New York Times and can be found at https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017650-quick-fresh-tomato-sauce.