9 Variations on Tomato Sauce (Gravy for the Italians)

Because I'm Italian, I like to talk about sauce. I don't call it gravy, I am a modern American woman. It's sauce made from tomatoes, garlic, and other tasty things. Every good cook should know the many variations on this more-or-less staple of Mediterranean cooking.

Here's a photo of my mother's Italian food. Mine is pretty much identical.

Every tomato sauce goes the same way. It starts with browning and/or sauteeing. If you plan to put meat in your sauce, then you brown the meat until mostly cooked. (This does not apply to fish because fish cooks quickly, so it goes into the sauce at the end). Anyway, so you drain some or all of the fat from the meat that you just browned, if you're using meat at all. Then you add aromatics (garlic and/or onion) and a little olive oil. Make sure the heat is turned down, the garlic cooks quickly and you don't want it to burn. Burned or brown garlic imparts a bitter taste.

A note about onions. Some people don't like them and others can't digest. They really make the sauce taste sweet. But if you don't want to actually eat onions, you can just add a half an onion without chopping it, let it cook down with the sauce, then remove at the end.

Next go your tomatoes. These also take a relatively long time to simmer down. You can vary the type of tomatoes depending on your desired consistency. Do you want chunky? Then scrunch up some whole cooked tomatoes. If you prefer thin sauce, then just buy some cans of "tomato sauce." I've been adding diced tomatoes to my sauce recently. They take less work. Some people make sauce out of tomato paste. I myself don't use tomato paste at all, but that's just me.

If you plan to add vegetables, the cooking time of the ones you choose will depend on when you put them in. Carrots and celery go in early, along with the aromatics. Peppers (in my humble opinion) go in at the last 10 minutes if you want them to stay chunky and green. Squash like zucchini or yellow go in last also. You can even sautee them separately and just add to the pasta when you serve it.
So, here are the many variations on tomato sauce for all your delicious dinners!

Basic, Meatless Tomato Sauce (Marinara)

Ingredients:

Garlic
Olive oil
Several cans of tomato sauce
Fresh or dried thyme
Salt and pepper

Sautee garlic and oil until you get the aroma. Add tomatoes, herbs and seasonings. Cook to bubbling, then turn down and simmer for about 30 minutes or until sweet. I believe marinara refers to seafood, so this is probably the basic sauce one would make before adding fish stock and shellfish if you were cooking that.

Common sense seems like a sound approach to me!

Tomato Sauce with Ground Beef

For an easy night when you want a hearty meal but don't feel like rolling meatballs.

Ingredients:

Packet of ground beef
Several cans of tomato sauce
Olive oil
Garlic and onion
Fresh basil or parsley if you have it
Salt and Pepper
Parmesan or Romano cheese

Brown the meat and drain the fat. Add oil, garlic and onions to the pan and sautee. Pour in tomato sauce, add parsley, salt and pepper. Cook for about an hour or two until it tastes like sauce. Serve with the pasta of your choice (ziti or rotelle is good), and sprinkle grated cheese over the top.

Tomato Sauce with Sausage

This is my go-to when I want a hearty Italian pasta meal.

Ingredients:

1 packet of Italian sausage, hot, sweet or mixed
Garlic and onion
Several cans of tomato sauce
Herbs of your choice – rosemary, thyme, parsley, fresh basil
Salt and pepper
Parmesan or Romano cheese

Brown the sausage in bottom of pan. As it browns, you can cut it up to reduce the cooking time. When the sausage is no longer pink, drain the fat and add a little olive oil and the garlic and onion. Sautee, then add tomato sauce, herbs, salt and pepper. Simmer the sauce for about 3 hours. You can also make meatballs and serve together for a hearty and flavorful pasta meal. Don't forget the grated cheese!

Here's a photo of my mother in law's table at Christmas time. Note the yummy meats.

Tomato Sauce with Meatballs

I like to make my "spaghetti and meatballs" using the flavorful, sausage-based sauce recipe that I mentioned above. You don't have to put sausage in if you don't have any. The recipe for basic tomato sauce works just fine too, but I'd add that half an onion to be removed at the end, and gently place the baked meatballs in at the end for about 20 minutes.

this photo is my husband's first attempt at making meatballs and sauce. pretty cool for a dude, eh?

Ingredients for Meatballs:

1 small package meatloaf mix or ground beef
2 slices wheat bread, toasted
About half a cup of milk
2 eggs
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
3/4 cups grated cheese such as Parmesan, Romano or a blend
Pinch of allspice
Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients together in a large bowl. From into bite-sized balls with your hands. Line up all meatballs on a baking dish and cook for about 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees. Add to sauce and cook for last 20 minutes. Serve over spaghetti with a sprinkle of fresh grated cheese, and parsley if you have it.

Lidia Bastianich's lasagna with bechamel beats all!

Bolognese Sauce

Like standard ground meat sauce, Bolognese starts with a packet of ground beef. But the addition of diced carrot and onion along with the garlic, is what makes it Bolognese. I think. Or at least that's what I learned from Lidia Bastianich.

Ingredients:

Ground beef
Olive oil
carrots
onion
cloves garlic
Several cans tomato sauce
Salt and pepper
Parmesan or Romano cheese

Brown the ground beef in the bottom of a stock pot and drain the fat. Add chopped carrots, onions and garlic. Sautee in olive oil. Add tomato sauce, salt and pepper. Cook for about 3 hours until sauce tastes done. Serve with ziti, or layered in a lasagna with mozzarella and Bechamel sauce.

Pomodoro Sauce

This recipe begins with a salty, cured meat. Bacon is fine, or if you have Panchetta  (Italian bacon) you can use that. Tomatoes should be chunky. Goes nicely over Fettuccini.


Ingredients:

Bacon
Olive oil
Garlic
Onion
Several cans of whole tomatoes, chunked up
White pepper
Fresh parsley at the end
Fresh grated cheese

Pomodoro does not take long to cook. You brown the bacon or Panchetta, drain some of the fat, then add aromatics and chunky tomatoes. Cook for maybe a half hour or 40 minutes. Serve over fettucini with grated cheese and fresh parsley.

Puttanesca Sauce

Puttanesca is one of my favorites, as I love tangy foods like olives and capers. I don't put onion in mine.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Garlic
Fresh basil
Several cans tomato sauce
A can of diced tomatoes
Artichoke hearts
Calamata olives
Capers
Pepper

Puttanesca cooks quickly, in a half hour or so. For those not in the know, a "puttana" is a woman of ill repute, and this is supposedly the meal one would expect to be served if you visited such women. Puttanesca is also called "gypsy pasta" – a less offensive name!

Cook Puttanesca as you would regular, basic tomato sauce. Then add your tangy artichoke hearts, Calamata olives and capers. This also works nicely with chunks of chicken breast. You should brown the meat first if you use it.

Rachael Ray just seems like someone I'd be friends with.

Seafood Sauce

For Italian seafood sauce, first you cook a simple marinara sauce, then add the fish at the end.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Garlic
Several cans of whole tomatoes, scrunched into chunks (drain the liquid), plus a can of tomato sauce if you want it less juicy and more saucy
White wine
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley

If you're using shellfish like clams and/or mussels, you'll want to scrub all the sand and "beards" off. Then add to the pot of sauce with some white wine, and cook until the shells open. It won't take more than 6 minutes probably – shellfish cook quickly, even more like 3 minutes if no shells are on. Remove most of the seafood bodies and return them to the sauce. Dispose of the shells. Save a few in the shells for presentation.

If you're using shrimp and want that good, fishy flavor but don't want guests to have to peel their shrimp, then pre-peel the shrimp and save the shells to boil in water for a quick stock. When the tomato sauce is cooked about half an hour, add the stock and white wine. Make sure the alcohol fully cooks off before serving. Throw in the shrimp to cook for about 3 or 4 minutes, then quickly serve with linguine. Garnish with fresh parsley.

FraDiablo Sauce

Diablo is the devil, don't you know, and that's why this sauce is hot hot hot. Some people think it's diavolo and that how it comes up from a lot of people on the Googles. Ha, ha! Pretty much everyone I know who has ever eaten Fra Diablo has it over linguine or spaghetti with fried calamari. I'm sure it would also be good with some cooked (non-fried) calamari and shrimp.

Ingredients:

Olive oil
Garlic
Several cans tomato sauce
Fish stock (see "Seafood Sauce", above, for how to make a quick shrimp shell stock)
Parsley
Salt and pepper
White wine
Hot sauce, like Tabasco
Cayenne pepper

Cook the tomato sauce as you normally would, about a half-hour. Add the white wine and cook off. Add several shots of Tabasco, to taste, and cayenne if you really like it hot. Serve over your pasta of choice, with the aforementioned, fried calamari.

There are so many ways to serve tomato sauce over pasta. What's your favorite recipe for tomato sauce?