There’s nothing like knowing you have stashed away in your freezer good tomato sauce made from sweet San Marzano canned tomatoes. It comes in handy in so many ways. I usually make 3 cups of thick sauce, to freeze in 1-cup containers. You can easily double or triple that amount if you’re feeling ambitious and have enough freezer space.

Ingredients

　　1 medium onion, chopped

　　2 garlic cloves, peeled and slivered

　　One 28-ounce can tomatoes, preferably San Marzano

　　A sprig of fresh basil leaves, if available

　　A good pinch of salt

　　Heat the oil in a heavy medium pot, and sauté the onion until it begins to soften. Add the garlic, and sauté another minute or two; don’t let it brown. Pour in the tomatoes, squishing them with your hands. Pour a cup of water into the can, and swirl it around to get up the remaining tomatoes,and then pour that into the sauce. Stir, bring to a boil, drop in the basil, and sprinkle salt over it. Cook at a lively simmer, stirring occasionally and scraping up the tomatoes from the bottom of the pan, adding a little more water if the sauce is getting too thick. I like my sauce thick for storage. I can always add broth and/or water or pasta water to thin it later.

　　The Pleasures of Cooking for One by Judith Jones. Copyright © 2009 by Judith Jones. Published by Knopf. All Rights Reserved.Judith Jones is senior editor and vice president at Alfred A. Knopf. She is the author of The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food and the coauthor with Evan Jones (her late husband) of three books: The Book of Bread; Knead It, Punch It, Bake It!; and The Book of New New England Cookery. She also collaborated with Angus Cameron on The L. L. Bean Game and Fish Cookbook, and has contributed to Vogue, Saveur, and Gourmet magazines. In 2006, she was awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. She lives in New York City and Vermont.