Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce

I had known about Marcella Hazan for a few years (see her Bolognese sauce recipe) but had never made any of her other recipes. A PDX restaurant, Nostrana, generally has a fantastic pasta sauce called “Marcella’s Butter Sauce No. 3” and one day I put two and two together that it was a Marcella Hazan recipe. This is as close to the recipe as I can get, and I believe it is in one of Marcella’s cookbooks. It’s not quite the same as Nostrana’s, but it’s very good.

Ingredients:

• one 28 ounce can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes
• one white onion, peeled and sliced in half
• 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter (although sometimes I just drop a whole stick in)

Instructions:

Add everything to a small sauce pan or small pot, bring to a simmer and cook uncovered for 45 minutes stirring occasionally and breaking down the tomatoes. Be generous with the salt. Toss with pasta and optionally add parmigiano and/or fresh cracked black pepper if you like.

The sauce is enough for ¾ lb of pasta.