Ugly Betty Tomato Sauce!

Are you so sad when your garden produces ugly tomatoes? Or you find tomatoes that are split, have spots or bug damage? Don’t despair! Make Ugly Betty Tomato Sauce. It’s delicious – and you’ll never have to waste a tomato again!

Ugly Betty was a popular sitcom from 2006 to 2010 staring America Ferrera (who was actually very beautiful – but whatever) as Ugly Betty, a plain-Jane character working in the fashion industry surrounded by a throng of glamorous and gorgeous co-workers. The underlying message was that Betty, while presumably ugly on the outside, was beautiful on the inside and all the physically beautiful characters were actually ugly on the inside. Clever…

…and a perfect metaphor for heirloom tomatoes. Bear with me on this.

Those perfectly round, blemish free tomatoes in the supermarket were grown hydroponically in most cases, without a bug or disease in sight. They are also practically tasteless, right? Pretty on the outside, ugly on the inside.

But home-grown heirloom tomatoes? The outside may be covered in little blemishes, bug bites, nibbles from small predators, end-rot or split from too much rain. They are often deformed and look very little like the perfect orb in the grocery store. But the flavor! There is nothing like it. Ugly on the outside, stunning variety of beauty and deep flavor on the inside.

I use my prettiest tomatoes for slicing, for salads, for tomato sandwiches, for serving to guests. I use the ugly, damaged tomatoes for Ugly Betty Tomato Sauce. It’s divine. And it makes good use of all those tomatoes you might have thrown away.

Take enough ugly tomatoes from your garden or kitchen counter to make up about 6 cups when roughly chopped. I use a wide variety: Beefsteak, Roma, Cherries…whatever I have on hand. Cut off any rotten parts. Cut up your split tomatoes and trim off any part that is going bad. Trim off the area around bug damage.

Save as much of every tomato as possible.

From your garden, grab a head of garlic and a handful of basil. You’ll also need a little cream, olive oil, red wine and good parmesan cheese (although not much of any of these ingredients. The focus is the tomatoes!)

In a large skillet, bring a tablespoon or two of olive oil to medium-high heat. Add the garlic (all of it, about 4-5 cloves, peeled and finely chopped). Saute for 2 minutes until your whole kitchen smells like garlic, but don’t burn it! Then add the tomatoes: skin, seeds and all. Mix them with the garlic and olive oil. Add the chopped basil (about 1/4 cup – I don’t measure it), a teaspoon of salt, 1/4 cup of red wine and simmer on medium-high heat for 30 minutes. Then cover the pan and reduce to low heat. Cook for at least an hour. I tend to cook it all day.

I start this recipe in the morning and I love having it sit and simmer on low all day. It smells wonderful and allows the flavor to really develop.

To finish the sauce, use a large spoon to transfer several cups of the sauce to the blender and blend until smooth. Return the sauce to the pan and repeat two or three times until most, but not all, of the sauce has been blended. Then remove the lid and raise the heat again to cook off some of the excess liquid. This sauce can be rather thin if you don’t allow the water to cook off at the end.

About 10 minutes before serving, turn off the heat and stir in 3 tablespoons of cream (I prefer heavy cream but I rarely have it on hand so I just use the same half-n-half I use for my morning coffee). Grate about 3 tablespoons of fresh parmesan cheese and stir well. Allow the sauce to sit as you plate your pasta or whatever you are serving this with. Add more salt if you desire.

The flavor of this sauce made entirely from ripe garden-fresh tomatoes is so different from the jar. It’s sweeter and smoother and you’ll miss it in the winter. Which reminds me…make extra and freeze it in mason jars. You won’t regret it.