Tomato Sauce Is the South’s Answer to “too Many Tomatoes”
When someone has “too many tomatoes,” their thoughts often turn to making marinara, trade winds , or soup. But if you’re from the south, you might consider tomato sauce instead (not to be confused with Italian Sunday sauce or Creole Italian red sauce).
I say “maybe” because I’m from the South, but I didn’t grow up to cook or eat tomato sauce. My stepmother (who hails from Monroe Country in northern Mississippi) heard about it but never did it; my mother (who hails from Natchez, which is down the river from Louisiana) “saw it a lot” as a child, but didn’t eat it at home, mostly because her mother was, and still is, a bit of a healthy nut who avoids sauces on filling base. (Not a shadow of Grandma Rita. She regularly wins medals at the Senior Olympics and is probably healthier than me.)
Give bacon fat a place of honor:
- Enamel grease trap with strainer
- Bold and beautiful ceramic butter dish
- Elegant and discreet drip jar
Tomato sauce is what I would like to eat as a child because it is delicious. I’m a big fan of roux-based sauces, and I’m even more of a fan of tomatoes and bacon fat , which make up half the ingredient list. (The other half: water and flour.) Like many Southern dishes, tomato sauce is the “food of desperation,” the economical recipe you turn to when faced with an excess of tomatoes that are teetering on the brink of overripe but not ready. but technically “bad”. They may not be worthy of tomato sandwiches , but they make an excellent sauce.
As with most sub-regional dishes, there is room for variation in tomato sauce even with so few ingredients. You can make a roux with bacon fat, sausage fat, or butter; and dilute the sauce with water, broth or milk. I come from a fatty bacon family (on my father’s side), so choosing the fat for my roux was easy. And while I was tempted by the thought of milk, I decided to use plain water, as the extra dairy will only hide the tomatoes and bacon fat, two flavors that shine in tandem. Again, the idea is to make do with what you have, so don’t specifically shop for certain fats or liquids. If all you have is oil, then make your own with oil. Butter and tomatoes are true friends.
Tomato sauce is great with biscuits, potatoes, fried pork chops, eggs, or any other food that goes with a savory, slightly sweet, and spicy sauce. It could even be eaten with noodles. (The Italians won’t approve, but they’re not bosses for you or tomatoes, for that matter.)
southern tomato sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons bacon fat
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 large, very ripe tomato, diced into 1/4-inch cubes
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 glass of water
Melt the bacon fat in a non-reactive skillet over medium heat. Add flour and mix, completely breaking up lumps. Cook for about five minutes until the roux is a pale golden color, slightly darker than straw.
Remove from heat and add tomatoes, stirring quickly to coat with sauce. Season with salt and stir again, then add water and return to stove over medium-low heat. Let sit until thickened, then taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. Serve with biscuits, chicken, eggs, pork chops, potatoes, or whatever you normally eat, with a generous dollop of sauce.