Slow-Cooked Summer Tomato Sauce

• 8 pounds ripe plum tomatoes
• 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• About 1 1/4 pounds onions, finely chopped (5 cups)
• 2 teaspoons salt, plus more to taste
• 5 large garlic cloves, finely chopped (about 1/3 cup)
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon peperoncino (hot red pepper flakes), to your taste
• A heavy-duty saucepan or Dutch oven, 8-quart capacity or larger, with cover

1. Prepare the tomatoes for sauce, following one of the methods detailed on page 261, and mix all the pulp and strained juices together.
2. Put the oil in the saucepan, add the onions and 1 teaspoon of the salt, set over medium heat, and stir well.
3. Cook and soften the onions for 7 minutes or so, stirring frequently and adjusting the heat to make sure they dont brown.
4. When the onions are wilted, golden, and translucent, push them aside to clear a space in the bottom of the pan.
5. Drop the garlic in the hot spot, spread the bits and let them caramelize slightly, for a minute or more, then stir them together with the onions.
6. Pour 2 tablespoons of water into the pan, stir everything well, and let the vegetables cook and soften for another minute.
7. Pour the prepared tomatoes into the saucepan (slosh out your tomato bowl with a cup or two of water, and pour in those juices too).
8. Sprinkle in the peperoncino and another teaspoon of salt, and stir well to blend the seasonings and sauteed onion and garlic into the tomatoes.
9. Finally, push the bouquet of basil branches into the pot, pressing them down with a spoon until theyre completely submerged.
10. Cover the pan, raise the heat to high, and bring the sauce to a boil, stirring occasionally, then turn the heat down so the surface is just bubbling gently, and cook covered.
11. Stir occasionally, and adjust the heat to maintain the slow perking.
12. When the tomatoes have cooked thoroughly and broken down, after 30 minutes or so, remove the cover.
13. Raise the heat slightly, so the perking picks up a bit and the sauce begins to reduce in volume.
14. Stir now and then, more frequently as the sauce thickens, to prevent scorching.
15. Dont rushit will take an hour or more of steady slow cooking to concentrate the tomatoes.
16. When the sauce is no longer watery and has the consistency you like, remove the pan from the heat.
17. Taste it, and stir in salt if needed.
18. Let it cool, and before using or storing, pull out the basil branches, shaking them over the pot to get every last bit of sauce.
19. The sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week, or in the freezer, in a properly filled and sealed container, through the winter.
20. I shucked the corn and removed all the silk, rinsed the ears, and dropped four of them in the pot.
21. I covered the saucepan so it quickly returned to a gentle boil, and cooked the ears for about 8 minutes, until the kernels were tender.
22. Dripping with sauce, the corn looked beautiful and tasted greatand no one needed butter.
23. In addition, the sauce in the pot gained extra sweetness.
24. Try this whenever you make this summer tomato sauce.
25. Its easy to cook a half-dozen ears of corn when the large batch of tomatoes is cooking for the first time.
26. Or you can reheat a quart or more of finished sauce and poach a couple of ears in it at a time.

tomatoes, extravirgin olive oil, onions, salt, garlic, peperoncino, saucepan

Taken from www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/slow-cooked-summer-tomato-sauce-384494 (may not work)