Yummy Malaysiana: naked tomato sauce

Every year at just about this time I renew my obsession with tomato sauce. Its late August, after all, and just about anyone who has ever gardened or knows people who garden is drowning in tomatoes and I am here, with my virtual bucket, eager to help you out. Dont be too fooled by my so-called benevolence, however, as its really a selfish endeavor; I find spaghetti with tomato sauce to be one of the universes perfect meals, so Im hardly kicking and screaming my way to the kitchen the next time the whim for a new one strikes me.

But I always think that the new one will be the one that closes the book on tomato sauce, that it will be done, that I will be able to move on and find new codes to crack in the kitchen knowing that Ive locked in my tomato sauce nirvana. Unfortunately, these moments of spaghetti calm are increasingly short-lived. This baked tomato sauce made me happy for a few years, before curiosity got the better of me and I fell for Marcella Hazans famous tomato sauce with butter and onions. Even then, I couldnt leave well enough alone, and but seven months later was taking pity on the cheap buckets of ugly but tasty! tomatoes at the market, creating a heartier sauce that could be made with any tomato, whether a prom queen or not.