Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
Aug 13, 2025
Marcella Hazan’s simple but delicious tomato sauce with onion and butter can be made easily.
- Servings
- 6
- Prep time
- 15 minutes
- Total time
- 60 minutes
Tags
This is the simplest of all sauces to make, and none has a purer, more irresistibly sweet tomato taste. I have known people to skip the pasta and eat the sauce directly out of the pot with a spoon.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds fresh, ripe tomatoes or 2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, cut up, with their juice
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 medium onion, peeled and cut in half
- Salt
- 1 to 1½ pounds pasta
- Freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese for the table
- Recommended pasta: This is an unsurpassed sauce for Potato Gnocchi, but it is also delicious with factory-made pasta in such shapes as spaghetti, penne, or rigatoni. Serve with grated Parmesan.
Instructions
-
Put either the prepared fresh tomatoes or the canned in a saucepan, add the butter, onion, and salt, and cook uncovered at a very slow, but steady simmer for 45 minutes, or until the fat floats free from the tomato. Stir from time to time, mashing any large piece of tomato in the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. Taste and correct for salt. Discard the onion before tossing the sauce with pasta. Note: May be frozen when done. Discard the onion before freezing.
