Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
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Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
 Marcella Hazan's four-ingredient tomato sauce from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. The onion flavors the sauce and comes out before serving. Put in a saucepan either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned: 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes or 2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice Add: 5 tablespoons butter 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half Salt Cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer. Cook for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time. Mash any large piece of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with: 1 to 1½ pounds pasta Recommended pasta This is an unsurpassed sauce for Potato Gnocchi, but it is also delicious with factory-made pasta in such shapes as spaghetti, penne, or rigatoni. Serve with grated Parmesan. For the table: Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for the table Note: You may freeze the sauce when done. Discard the onion before freezing. |
Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter crumb: tomatoes simmered slowly with butter and a halved onion Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking includes “Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter”. Marcella Hazan wrote it (1992, p. 152). This book set the base for classic Italian home cooking in English. It covers soffritto, ragù, risotto and light sauces. Hazan calls it the simplest of all sauces to make. Food & Wine says it first appeared in 1973 as Tomato Sauce III. That book was The Classic Italian Cook Book. Differences: The online recipe is the book recipe, printed by permission of Knopf. Both list 2 pounds of fresh ripe tomatoes or 2 cups of canned Italian plum tomatoes. Both add 5 tablespoons of butter, 1 medium onion cut in half, and salt. Both cook it uncovered at a very slow, steady simmer for 45 minutes. Both stop when the fat floats free from the tomato. Both mash large pieces of tomato with a wooden spoon. Both discard the onion and toss the sauce with 1 to 1½ pounds of pasta. The book points to its own pages for preparing fresh tomatoes and for potato gnocchi. The online recipe drops those page references. The X post used a 28-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes and a Vidalia onion. That is more tomato than the 2 cups in the book. It sauced 1 lb of pasta in a skillet. |
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- Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan (1992)
- Differences
The online recipe is the book recipe, printed by permission of Knopf. Both list 2 pounds of fresh ripe tomatoes or 2 cups of canned Italian plum tomatoes. Both add 5 tablespoons of butter, 1 medium onion cut in half, and salt. Both cook it uncovered at a very slow, steady simmer for 45 minutes. Both stop when the fat floats free from the tomato. Both mash large pieces of tomato with a wooden spoon. Both discard the onion and toss the sauce with 1 to 1½ pounds of pasta. The book points to its own pages for preparing fresh tomatoes and for potato gnocchi. The online recipe drops those page references. The X post used a 28-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes and a Vidalia onion. That is more tomato than the 2 cups in the book. It sauced 1 lb of pasta in a skillet.
- Book recipe
- We do not offer this for print or share because it is not public domain. Buy or borrow the book.
- Online sources
- PBS Food · Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
X · @SkinnerPm
Food52 · Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce With Onion & Butter
Eat Your Books · Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (Tomato sauce with onion and butter)
web writeups - Date
- Sep 2026
Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan (1992).
This book set the base for classic Italian home cooking in English. It covers soffritto, ragù, risotto and light sauces.