Tomato "Swiss Army" Sauce

What the heck is "Swiss Army" sauce you ask? It is a really tasty tomato sauce that can be used for just about anything. It is good as a regular pasta sauce, great on pizza, served in bruschetta, a glaze for a meatloaf, with ravioli, and well you get the picture. 

Looks good, right??

A few weeks ago I got a pizza stone. I figured if I was going to give it a proper welcome to my kitchen arsenal, I may as well go all out with the homemade business. I made crust, I made this sauce, and I would have gone so far as to make cheese for it if I would have had enough time to get the stuff together. Giving credit where it is due, this recipe is from an episode of my favorite cooking show, Good Eats. It was featured in season 2 episode 12 titled "Pantry Raid II: Seeing Red". I made a double batch because it doesn't add much time to the process, which takes a while to begin with, so I figured I may as well get a bunch out of it. The recipe as follows is a single batch.

This recipe is not difficult per se, but there is a fair amount of knife work involved.

Start with two 28 oz. cans of whole peeled tomatoes. Grab two mixing bowls and a colander, and set up near the sink. We want to collect the liquid in the cans, and also seed the tomatoes. I started by dumping the tomatoes in to the colander over one of the bowls to get the juice separated, then punctured each tomato with my thumb under running water to get the seeds out. As I seed each tomato, I put it into the second mixing bowl. When it's all done you'll have a bowl of tomato juice and a bowl of seeded tomatoes.

When you're done seeding all the tomatoes set them aside, transfer the juice to a sauce pan and add the vinegar, sugar, red pepper flakes, oregano, and basil. We will come back to the tomatoes later. If you can't find sherry vinegar, you can use equal parts sherry cooking wine and regular white vinegar. (That is not a "recommended substitution" as far as I know, but it works just fine.)

Tasty!

Once the seasonings are added, put it over high heat until you see it start to bubble a bit, then reduce to a simmer.

Reduce the heat when it looks like this.

Over the next 30 minutes or so, this sauce should reduce by about half which will concentrate the flavors going on in there. Keep one eye on the sauce while you're moving through the next steps. Make sure to give it a stir every so often so the bottom doesn't end up burned to the bottom of the pan.

In the mean time, we've got some chopping to do.

We're going to chop down some onion, celery, and carrot to make what's called a mirepoix (mere-paw) or "trinity" which will form the base of the flavorful goodness in this sauce. We'll also add some garlic, because we can.

Let's start with the carrot... It will take longer than the celery or onion to cook. The big thing to pay attention to is that the chunks you end up with are close to equal in size so they cook at the same rate. The steps here are to peel, halve lengthwise, slice into long sticks, then dice, as shown in the following image.

Got it? Good. 

Once the carrots are cut, throw 'em in a heavy, oven safe pot over medium-low heat with a bit of olive oil. I used an enameled cast iron dutch oven. A roasting pan would be ideal. The carrots are hitting the heat first because they will take longer to cook than the celery and onion. 

Keep the heat on the low side - we are sweating the vegetables, not sautéing them. If you see any browning or hear more than a slight hiss from the pan, turn the heat down. 

Next, cut the celery exactly like the carrot, but don't add it to the pot right away. 

Chop the onion the easy way... Use a paring knife to take both ends off the onion, but leave a bit of the root end attached. Remove the outer layer, and halve lengthwise. then make evenly spaced cuts almost all the way through to the root. Turn the onion 90 degrees and chop into even squares. There is no real need to make cuts parallel to the counter because the layers of the onion will separate without any added intervention. Throw out the last 1/2 inch or so, as that is often the most pungent part of the onion. 

I enjoy .gif images... 

Once the onion is chopped,  mince 4 cloves of fresh garlic, and add everything to the pan with the carrots.

Mirepoix accomplished!

At this point, you can add a bit of salt and pepper to the mix, but don't overdo it. We have a lot of good flavors working in that saucepan with the tomato juice.

Continue sweating the vegetables, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are soft and the onions are starting to become translucent. This should take approximately 20 minutes.  After about 15 minutes start preheating your broiler.

Once the carrots are softening, and the onions are ready, add the whole seeded tomatoes to the pot, and mix everything together.

I made a double batch in a 6 qt. dutch oven. It worked out ok,
but a larger pan would have been ideal.

Once everything is mixed together, put the whole mess in the oven under the broiler. Leave it there for 15-20 minutes. Watch it closely (pay close attention for burning... Erm, or "over caramelization") and stir the mixture every 5 minutes or so.

Glowing under the broiler... (sorry for the bad pic)

You're looking for the tomatoes to brown ever so slightly, and for the carrots, onion and celery to begin to caramelize. Nothing should be golden brown, but the dry heat of the broiler roasting the vegetables will add depth to the flavor of the final product.

It will look something like this when
it comes out of the oven

Once it's out of the oven, break up the tomatoes a bit with a wooden spoon, add the white wine, and cook for about 5 minutes over high heat, stirring constantly.

Once wine is incorporated, add in the reduced tomato juice.

Hungry yet?

Mix to get everything combined, and you're good to go!

Good on just about anything

At this point, the sauce is complete.

Without any further work, this stuff is great right on top of a bowl of your favorite pasta, or with crunchy toasted bread. You could even brown up some Italian sausage and have a pretty darn tasty meal on your hands.

However, some of you may be thinking "But Techie Chef! This is way too chunky for the dish I have in mind! It'll never work..." But don't worry... There is hope for you yet.

I may have mentioned earlier that this stuff makes for a most excellent pizza sauce. All that is left is to blend it to whatever consistency you want. The easiest way to do so, would be to take an immersion or "stick" blender and go to town right in the pot until it is as smooth as you need it. I, however, used a standard bar blender and blended about 4 cups of the sauce smooth for use as pizza sauce, and left the rest as is. I figure I can always blend it down further when needed.

As far as packaging goes (remember, I had cooked a double batch) I used quart sized freezer bags, and put only enough sauce in each so that the bags would still be pretty flat when laid down.

Don't forget to label!

 I recommend laying these flat in your freezer for a few hours until they start to freeze up. After that, they can be lined up on end like books on a shelf and stored wherever there is room in your freezer.

In my experience with this sauce, it freezes and refreezes very well. I normally just take a bag out of the freezer in the morning before I go to work so it can thaw during the day, use about a quarter cup or so to make a pizza that night, then throw the rest right back in the freezer.

I hope that you enjoy the recipe as much as I do!


Here's the full recipe!
Adapted from Alton Brown's recipe here.


2 (28-ounce) cans whole, peeled tomatoes
1/4 C Sherry vinegar OR equal parts white vinegar and sherry cooking wine
1/4 C Sugar
1 tsp dried red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 small to medium onion
1 large carrot
1 large stalk celery
2 oz. olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 C white wine
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Open and drain the tomatoes, reserving the juice into a saucepan. Set tomatoes aside. 
2. Add spices, sherry vinegar, and sugar to the saucepan and heat over medium high heat until it starts to bubble, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until reduced by half, stirring occasionally.
3. Peel and dice carrot, and sweat in a roasting pan over low heat with the olive oil. 
4. While tomato juice is reducing and carrot is cooking, seed and rinse the tomatoes.
5. Chop celery and onion as described, reserve. 
6. mince garlic, then add garlic, chopped celery, and chopped onion to the roasting pan with the carrot. Keep over low heat.
7. Once the vegetables are slightly softened, add the seeded tomatoes to the roasting pan, and broil on high for 20 minutes, removing pan to stir every 5 minutes. 
8. Remove roasted vegetables from oven, add wine and place pan over medium high heat. Stir constantly for 5 minutes. 
9. Turn off heat, and add the reduced tomato juice to the pan. Stir to combine. 
10. Optionally, use an immersion or bar style blender to blend the sauce to your desired consistency. 

Yield: approximately 4.5 cups.