Sauce Tomate

I picked up a bunch of tomatoes to make sauce, and decided to follow a recipe for a change... Julia Child's recipe from the first volume of 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking.'

There are subtle differences in this recipe that make a world of difference: using butter instead of olive oil, and using a thickener: flour.

Here's her recipe for 2lb tomatoes - I used 4lb - to yield 2 1/2 cups of sauce:

1) Sautee for 10 minutes:

• 1/4 cup each of diced onions, carrots, and celery
• 3 Tbsp butter
• 1 Tbsp oil

2) Add 1 1/2 Tbsp flour and cook for 3 minutes

3) Off heat, add:

• 1 1/2 cups boiling beef stock
• 2lb chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp sugar
• 4 parsley springs
• 1/2 bay leaf
• 2 unpeeled garlic cloves

4) Bring to a boil and simmer for 1.5 to 2 hours

5) Strain, add 1Tbsp to 2 Tbsp tomato paste for colour if desired, adjust seasoning

After 2 hours, the sauce had developed the full flavor but hadn't thickened as much as I wanted. So I strained out the solids, and set the sauce on a rolling boil for a a few minutes while stirring constantly... it still wasn't thick enough, so I whipped up some white roux using 1 part canola oil and 1 part flour, added some sauce to the roux, stirred, added more sauce to the roux, stirred, and then put the mix into the sauce. In all I probably added an extra 1.5Tbsp to 2 Tbsp of roux.

Finally, I adjusted the seasoning with a dash of salt, a pinch of sugar, and a few pinches of cayenne - NOT to make it spicy, but to wake up the taste buds.

Due to the straining and all that roux, the end result is incredibly velvety. It will surely stick well to some fettuccine.