How to Make Tomato Sauce

The whole point of Pomodoro is that you skip the fine chopping. Halve and peel a red onion, peel a whole carrot, smash and peel 3 or 4 garlic cloves, and pull a parmesan rind out of the cheese drawer. Everything stays in big pieces so you can fish it back out at the end. If you start chopping it small, you've made a marinara, not a Pomodoro.

Open the can of whole peeled San Marzanos and pour the whole thing into a bowl - juice and all. Then sink your hand in and squish them. You're looking for a rough texture where you can still see chunks but everything's coated. The nonnas in Italy have been doing it this way for centuries. If it ain't broke.

Set a stainless steel saucepan over medium heat with a generous pour of extra virgin olive oil. You want the oil to dance in the pan when it's ready - that means it's warm enough to bloom the garlic without burning it. Drop in the smashed cloves with a pinch of salt and let them turn lightly golden. The kitchen is about to smell incredible.

Pour the crushed tomatoes into the pan over a wooden spoon - it cuts the splatter so you don't end up wearing your dinner. Nestle the halved onion and the whole carrot into the sauce, drop in the parmesan rind, tear a few basil leaves on top, and add one more glug of olive oil. That extra fat is what gives the finished sauce its silky body.

Bring the sauce up to a gentle simmer and leave it alone. You're looking for lazy bubbles, not a hard rolling boil - that breaks the texture down too fast. The carrot needs about 25 to 30 minutes to fully soften, which is exactly long enough for all those aromatics to dissolve their flavor into the tomato base. Get your pasta water going while you wait.

Spoon up a taste. If the sweetness isn't popping yet, add salt - the only way to know if something's seasoned right is to taste it. Then grab tongs and pull out the onion halves and the carrot. Both should be tender enough to slide a fork through. Scrape what's left of the soft parmesan rind back into the sauce - it's edible and packed with flavor.

Taste it and call it. If you want a chunky rustic sauce, you're done. For a velvety restaurant-style finish, pulse it a few times with an immersion blender until it looks emulsified and almost creamy. Toss with cooked spaghetti and a splash of pasta water, finish with grated Parmigiano Reggiano and one more drizzle of olive oil, and try not to eat it straight from the pan.