I could never do low carb...I'm the kind of person who will have half a cup of soup mopped up with half a baguette. In fact, years ago I had some weird inflammatory disease and one of my doctors suggested we try a low carb diet to see if it helped. I was limping around with massive pain, worrisome bloodwork and high fevers and my answer was "I'm miserable enough as is, I'm not giving up carbs if you don't even know if it will do anything." I don't drink and barely eat meat, leave my grains alone
Tomato Base
5 middle sized onions
1 bulb of garlic
1 1/2 kg (3 1/2 lbs) of fresh tomatoes OR 3 tins of peeled tomatoes 400 g each (I think 14 oz?)
olive oil
1 tin of tomato paste (3 oz, but if you are working from a big jar, just a very heaping Tblsp is fine. It's just to deepen the flavour especially when using fresh tomatoes)
bouquet garni of fresh oregano, basil, rosmary OR 1 Tblsp of dried Italian herbs (I dumbed that down and use 1 Tblsp dried oregano because I always have that one. I do add fresh basil to my finished dish often)
3/4 Tblsp salt
3/4 Tblsp sugar
optional: 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes or a splash of hot sauce
Peel and roughly chop the onions. Peel and halve the garlic cloves.
If using fresh tomatoes, carve a cross into their bottoms with a knife, put them all into a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let sit for a few minutes - you will see when the skin starts to losen -, drain them, douse with cold water (the proper way is to make an ice bath, but the lazy cook that I am just pours the whole thing into the sink and runs cold water over them so I can touch them. Stopping the cooking process immediately like with other blanched vegetables doesn't matter as they'll be cooked to mush anyway).
Add enough olive oil to cover the base of your pot (I never measure, I just pour, but if I should guess I'd say 1/2 cup maybe?) and fry onions and garlic on middle heat until translucent, fragrant and just starting to go a little golden around the edges, stirring occasionally.
Add the tomato paste and fry gently for a minute or two while stirring.
Add the tomatoes (if using tinned with the juices), add the bouqet garni or dried herbs, cover the pot and bring the tomato mix to a boil. Once it boils, turn down the heat to low and let the sauce simmer for about an hour - stir regularly as the sauce tends to stick to the bottom and may burn in places if left completely unattended. At this point, you will have a chunky sauce and the oil will float on top.
Take out the herb bundle if using, add salt, sugar and red pepper flakes or hot sauce if using and blend the sauce until smooth (I prefer to transfer to a blender because I feel it makes the mix extra smooth, but a stick blender will totally work). Depending on the tomatoes and personal taste you might have to add another 1/4 tsp of salt and sugar - I always use a full soup spoon and I think it holds slightly less than an actual measuring spoon, so I'd rather you go in with the smaller amount first instead of finding the results too salty.
I usually used tinned tomatoes, but last year we had tons of homegrown ones. So I froze anything we didn't eat in a timely manner because I hate soft tomatoes, but for sauce it really doesn't matter. When thawed the skin will slide right off. I usually get about 4 meals for 4 people out of this - I freeze 2 cups per portion and often have a little extra. For soup, try a 2 cups sauce to 1 cup tomato juice ratio.
Oh, and if the bottom does burn a little, don't panic. Just don't disturb the burned bits while transferring to a blender or if using the stick blender transfer to a clean pot before blending and the taste should be perfectly fine - and I say that as someone who is super sensitive to burned food.
Thanks for taking the time to write this out; it sounds mouthwateringly delicious! I'll definitely start out conservatively with the salt so I have the option to add a little more if necessary. Our grocery stores always seem to have mushy fresh tomatoes so I will probably use canned. I've been using San Marzano canned tomatoes but I'd love to know if you have a favorite?