Homemade Tomato Sauce

There are three basic styles of sauces: long-simmered, the barely-cooked, and raw. Long simmering achieves a rich, complex flavor. Barely-cooked sauces have a lighter flavor more recognizable of fresh tomatoes, but a little bit of cooking softens the tomatoes and brings out more of their sweetness. Uncooked sauce is bright and refreshing, and is best made with thoroughly ripe summer tomatoes.

Long-simmered tomato sauce is delicious any time of year. The benefits of extended cooking time are that the sauce thickens as the water cooks out, and the flavors meld together the longer they simmer. Any other vegetables you have added to the sauce will become richer and sweeter the longer they cook.

• When fresh tomatoes are out of season, it's perfectly fine to use canned tomatoes.
• During the summer, turn a bumper crop of ripe tomatoes into a long-simmered tomato sauce.
• Cooking time can range from two hours to all day, depending on how thick and caramelized you like your sauce.
• Make a big batch, eat some for dinner, and pour the rest into freezer-safe containers for the coming months. Then, simply thaw it as needed; you can add any fresh herbs, spices, veggies, or meats desired.

Barely-cooked tomato sauce is particularly succulent in the summer, when tomatoes are begging to be eaten in every possible form. The benefit of briefly-cooked sauce is it retains the fresh, tart-sweet tomato taste, but also heats the ingredients long enough to add some depth to the flavor of the sauce. You can caramelize some onions, sauté garlic and simmer herbs long enough to infuse the sauce with their flavors.

Raw tomato sauce makes for a wonderfully refreshing summertime meal. It can be eaten right away--tossed with pasta, spooned over grilled meats and vegetables, mounded on lightly toasted or grilled bread, spread on pizza crust for an extremely memorable sauce, or whatever else sounds good to you. To make raw tomato sauce, you should only use fresh tomatoes at their peak of ripeness, when they are sweet and juicy and bursting with flavor. The process is easy:

• Seed your tomatoes (peeling is optional, in this case) and chop them.
• Alternately, you can cut the tomatoes into quarters, seed them, and then grate them with a cheese grater for a smoother, juicier sauce.
• Raw tomato sauce only needs to be seasoned with extra virgin olive oil, fresh herbs (basil or parsley are best), and some salt and pepper.
• Toasted pine nuts add texture and richness.

It's essential all the ingredients are high-quality and fresh, because there are no heavy flavors or extensive cooking processes in this simple dish. If you've got a little more time to spare, you can enhance your raw sauce by allowing it to sit for several hours, giving the flavors a chance to blend and deepen.