Old ROTW: Gnocci with Tomato Sauce

ROTW from 22nd October 2007

Chop and onion finely and fry in olive oil until just turning golden - make sure you get all the pieces translucent. Take a tin of good chopped tomatoes and add to the onions. Add any tomatoes you have lying around that need using up - you don't need fresh ones but you can use them if they are to hand. However you do need either 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar or one glass of red wine. Any wine you have to hand is good - don't open a bottle especially. Reduce hard stirring well until the volume has approximately halved or more.

The next step is painful but completely necessary. Sieve the sauce through a coarse sieve. Push the sauce through the sieve with a wooden spoon, and scrape the outside to ensure you have the stubborn bits of sauce that won't fall off. The resulting fluid should be thick and jammy. If not, reduce some more. Taste and if it's not really thick and satisfying, consider adding a dash of balsamic vinegar or some tomato puree. If you had good tomatoes to start with this should not be necessary, but it can rescue less good ones.

Once done, add pepper and just a little salt.

Boil water and do the gnocchi. Meanwhile grate some parmesan and tear half a dozen basil leaves. Add the leaves to the sauce, drain the gnocchi and serve, pour over the sauce, and add the grated cheese on top. You should not need much sauce as it's so thick and yummy. The rest freezes well.