Marcella Hazan’s Tomato Butter Sauce

Steps

1. Take a small saucepan and submerge your onion halves and butter into the tomato puree (bonus points if you create a smiley face out of them).
2. Place the saucepan on the stove and simmer on medium-high for about 5 minutes. The butter will start to melt and you’ll smell the onion cooking.
3. Here is the easiest yet hardest part: Lower your heat as low as it goes, step away from the stove, and leave your pot UNCOVERED alone for the next hour to hour and a half. Do. Not. Stir during this time. Literally, don’t even touch the pan. Pretend it never happened. When the contents of the pan look like picture 5 & 6 below, we have reached Tomato Butter Sauce Nirvana.
4. Remove the pan from stove, and grab a bowl, a whisk, and some tongs. Gently remove the onion halves and set aside safely in a bowl to do one of the following with latter: Eat as is.
5. Chop up into a relish and serve with meat.
6. Chop up and serve on toast with ricotta or other cheese.
7. Throw them into a vegetable soup.
8. Blend part of them back into the Tomato Butter Sauce, which many people do, but I do not!
9. Grab your whisk and mix the tomato puree, clarified butter, and delicious memory of onion together until 3 become 1.
10. And there she is—our perfect tomato sauce with a flavor unlike anything you’ve ever tasted. Serve over orrechiette or rigatoni with a sprinkle of grated pecorino or parmesan, and prepare to become obsessed.
11. Side note: I typically don’t put any fresh herbs on top. It doesn’t need it. Also, if I want meat with this meal, I cook it separately and serve it on the side. More often that not, I choose onion option 2 and make a relish for said meat, and it’s perfection.