Marcella Hazan’s simple pasta sauce recipe – often considered ‘the best in the world’ – is easy, budget-friendly, and a hit with families
You can’t beat a delicious bowl of tomato pasta(Image: AnnaPustynnikova via Getty Images)
This wallet-friendly pasta sauce has been hailed as the “best in the world”, and calls for just three ingredients that you may well already have sitting in your kitchen cupboards. While there is nothing more satisfying than a hearty bowl of pasta smothered in a mouth-watering sauce, the hectic pace of modern life means that more and more people are reaching for jars off the supermarket shelf.
However, according to the late Italian-American food writer Marcella Hazan, one of the finest pasta sauces can be whipped up with ease and at minimal cost, using just three ingredients.
The pasta sauce recipe, first published in Marcella’s book Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, has since been declared “the best in the world” by food publication Delish.
The straightforward recipe requires nothing more than tinned tomatoes, an onion and a generous knob of butter.
How to make the world’s best pasta sauce
You could, of course, prepare fresh tomatoes yourself, though anyone who has tried this will tell you it can be quite a lengthy process — so if a quick meal is what you are after, Marcella’s method is the way to go.
The 1992 recipe continues to be popular with food writers and home cooks alike. There is no chopping involved whatsoever, and pasta with tomato sauce is always a crowd-pleaser around the family dinner table.
Ingredients
- One large can whole peeled tomatoes
- Five tablespoons unsalted butter
- One medium onion
- Salt to taste
Method
Marcella’s exact instructions are to place half a peeled onion into a pot with butter and tinned tomatoes, then leave everything to simmer gently for 45 minutes.
In her book, Marcella shared the recipe, writing: “No other preparation is more successful in delivering the prodigious satisfactions of Italian cooking than a competently executed sauce with tomatoes.”
In an interview with Epicurious in 2016, three years following his wife’s passing, Marcella’s husband Victor reflected on her straightforward approach to cooking.
He said: “Marcella was a genius when it came to taste. She had an immediate understanding about how flavour affects a dish.
“She asked herself, ‘Why chop an onion? Why saute? I’m going to put the onion, tomato, and butter together and forget about it’.”
