Name: Slow-Cooker All-Purpose Tomato Sauce
Total time: 7 h
Ingredients: 8 pounds plum tomatoes , cored and halved crosswise; 1 1/2 teaspoons salt; 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Why This Recipe Works

Tomatoes are packed with flavorful compounds—and water. To make a thick and savory sauce that could be used in many different applications, we squeezed out the tomatoes’ seeds before adding the tomatoes to the slow cooker. Tomato seeds become bitter over long cooking times, and this sauce simmers for many hours. Doing this handiwork up front meant that we ended up with a sweet sauce and didn’t need any special equipment to sift out seeds at the end.

Before You Begin

Be sure to leave the lid slightly ajar—about 1/2 inch—to allow steam to escape and help concentrate the flavor. Use this versatile sauce as a base for marinara sauce or tomato soup or in place of crushed tomatoes in our Chicken Parmesan for Two (see related content).

Instructions

Working over bowl, squeeze each tomato half to remove seeds and excess juice. Discard seeds and juice. Transfer tomatoes to slow cooker; add salt and stir to combine. Leaving lid about 1/2 inch ajar, cook tomatoes until very soft, 8 to 10 hours on low or 5 to 7 hours on high.

Transfer tomatoes to colander and let excess liquid drain (do not press on tomatoes).

FOR A BLENDER: Working in batches, process tomatoes in blender until smooth, about 1 minute. Transfer sauce to clean bowl.FOR AN IMMERSION BLENDER: Return tomatoes to slow cooker. Submerge blender in slow cooker and process tomatoes until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes.

Stir oil into sauce until incorporated. Let sauce cool completely, then refrigerate for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 2 months.