Dr. Iowa City?
I’ve searched high and low to figure out what this means without luck. I end up with a lot of addresses ending in “drive” in Iowa City. If you’ve got any idea, please leave a comment!
As for the recipe, I don’t think you need the onion and celery–I’d replace them with more garlic. There was some historical notion of garlic as being too pungent for our delicate systems, and recipes, like this one, would call for obliterating a tiny amount of garlic into an endless sea of sauce, or chili, or whatever else.
The rationale I remember seeing on cooking shows when I was growing up in the 1980s was, “You don’t want to bite into a big piece of garlic.” Let me be clear: if you ever say the words “I don’t want to bite into a big piece of garlic” in my kitchen, unless you have some compelling medical reason for saying so, I will throw you out into the street.
I damn well do want to bite into a big piece of garlic, especially in a tomato sauce. When it’s properly cooked, and the clove is nice and creamy, with a balance between the flavor of the garlic and the acidity of the tomato, spread on a piece of ciabatta… if there are better things in this world, we can’t discuss them in mixed company.
(Random note: this is the 800th post on Yesterdish. Because some of the posts aren’t recipes, the 800th recipe will be in two days.)
From the box of D.W. from Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Italian Tomato Sauce
Contadina pear shaped tomatoes, 5 cans
Peanut or olive oil to cover bottom of heavy bottom pan. Saute two large onions in this oil and 1 stalk celery at same time.
1/2 box sweet basil. Use wooden spoon.
Add all 5 cans tomatoes.
1 whole garlic clove cut in 1/2 crosswise.
Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.
2 heaping tsp. sugar.
Cook partially covered to about 1/3 of original quantity (about 5 or 6 hours). Stir occasionally.
Add 1 can imported tomato puree about 10 minutes before done. Then strain through colander.
Freeze in small container, so you use only what you need at a time.
Dr. Iowa City