Earlier this summer, we took our family to Tuscany and Rome to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 70th birthday and Julia’s upcoming 40th birthday. It was a life-changing trip in so many ways, but one of my favorite things we did were some private cooking classes. In one class we took led by an Italian chef in Florence, we made a tomato sauce for pasta that was so incredibly vibrant and fresh—it was like the sweet essence of tomato with just a small amount of savory nuance from garlic, onion, and fresh basil. It just tasted like the epitome of summer in Italy. I knew I was going to make that again and again once I got home, with just a few small tweaks of my own.
What You Need to Make Italian Tomato Sauce
- Roma tomatoes: The traditional tomato for making sauces, the Roma is a firm tomato without a lot of excess water, so it cooks down into a more concentrated sauce. 3/4 of the tomatoes by weight will be Roma.
- Other tomatoes: This can be a mix of any tomatoes you have. Heirlooms are great to add a little depth, cherry or grape tomatoes for extra sweetness – anything that looks good in the store will work with this.
- Yellow onions: Of the popular onion varieties, yellow onions have a higher sugar content with a great punchy flavor, which is why they’re the one you’d pick for caramelizing. They add some really deep, savory sweetness to the sauce.
- Garlic: This adds that pungent, tasty flavor that we associate with a lot of Italian dishes.
- Good olive oil: A cornerstone of the Mediterranean diet, olive oil adds a buttery, fruitiness that perfectly complements the tomatoes. Make sure you use a better brand than a budget pick so you get the best flavor. (My go-to is this one.)
- Seasoning: Salt is essential to balance out the sweetness of the sauce.
- Fresh Basil: Only added at the end, some small leaves of basil perfume the sauce without overpowering it.
How to Make Italian Tomato Sauce
Core the heirloom tomatoes and cut them in half. If you have any really large Roma tomatoes, you can cut them in half. Peel the onions and cut them into quarters. Smash the garlic with the flat side of a knife. Add all of the tomatoes to a very large stockpot. As the sauce cooks, you will press the tomatoes down with a potato masher or wooden spoon to squeeze out some of the juices and keep the sauce moving. Cook the mixture over medium-low heat for 1-2 hours, stirring the bottom with a long heat-proof wooden spoon as the tomatoes break down and simmer to distribute the heat and reduce the risk of burning the bottom.
Strainer Pot (similar)
Once the tomatoes are soft and some of the excess moisture has cooked down, use a ladle to spoon the sauce into a food mill to finely process the tomatoes. (I have this food mill, though I wish it was a tad bigger for a job like this one.) A food mill is preferable to a blender, because it strains out any bitter seeds, stems, and garlic skins and leaves the sauce with a little bit of texture so it can stick to a pasta better, rather than turning it into puree like soup.
Finally, add the sauce back onto the stove to cook for another 30 minutes or more to concentrate the flavor. Let the sauce cool down if storing it in the fridge or freezer, or follow canning instructions to properly process for long-term storage. Ladle out the tomato sauce into each jar or container, placing a basil leaf on top to add just a hint of herbaceous flavor. Remove and discard the basil when it’s time to reheat the sauce.
Serve with your favorite pasta, polenta, or meatballs. This is going to be something we make for decades, and it’ll always make me think back to that fun “Italian summer.” Hope you enjoy sharing it with your family and friends!
Authentic Italian Tomato Sauce
Ingredients:
- 3 lbs Roma tomatoes
- 1 lb other tomato variety (heirloom, cherry tomatoes, etc.)
- 1/2 lb yellow onions, peeled, quartered and base cut out
- 6 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1/4 cup good olive oil
- Overachiever seasoning to taste (or salt)
- 8-10 leaves fresh basil
Directions:
- Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, and olive oil to a large, heavy-bottom pot. Wider base pots work best to allow for stirring and keeping the tomatoes from scorching on the bottom of the pan.
- Cook over medium-low heat for 1-2 hours, mashing with a wooden spoon or potato masher occasionally. The sauce should not come above a low simmer.
- Once all of the tomatoes, onions and garlic have broken down, turn off the heat and pass the mixture through a food mill (in batches), into a large bowl. Once all the sauce has been passed through, wash out the pot and return the strained tomato sauce to the pot over medium heat. Discard any of the solids.
- Cook over medium heat until the sauce reaches desired thickness. Turn off the heat, season with Hey Old Sport Overachiever (or salt) and add the basil. Stir gently and either use or store for later use. Canning preferred for longterm storage (up to 6 months).
I can’t wait to try this, I have a garden full of ripe tomatoes at the moment!
Sounds pretty much what the Rizzuto family has been doing over a century in this country. And I love my enamel cover cast iron pot to cook it in! Thank you!
Didn’t try it so I won’t rate but there are some inherent issues. First, there is no single ‘italian tomato sauce’. There are many different sauces with similar ingredients prepared differently, think pomodoro sauce vs marinara. Second, authentic Italian tomato based sauces all start with aromatics such as garlic and red pepper flakes or soffrito sauteed in olive oil to flavor the oil and carry it throughout the sauce. This is as authentic as it gets when building any tomato based Italian sauce. This isn’t such a bad take, but authentic isn’t the right lane.
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts! You’re absolutely right that there are many different tomato-based sauces across Italy, each with their own traditions and techniques. What we’ve shared here is the recipe given to us by a chef in Italy, so while it may not represent every regional approach, it is authentic to our experience there. We love that there are so many variations, and this one just happens to be a new favorite in our kitchen.
How many quarts did you end up with Chris?
About two quarts in this recipe, depending on the moisture levels in the tomatoes and how cooked down you prefer it!
08/17/2025
* Excellent !
Grazi Millie ! ♥️