Julia Child's Provençale Tomato Sauce Recipe (2024)

If you want an even easier technique, you can skip the food processor and just toss the quartered tomatoes in the pot, simmer until it's all cooked down sufficiently, then use an immersion blender to puree everything at the end. Less fuss, less mess. That's how I always make tomato sauce from my garden tomatoes. I usually flavor my sauce with a nothing but onions, garlic, and basil, so I'm eager to try this combination of spices.

Wonderful and so easy, given that you can just put the tomatoes in the food processor, skins and all. I made this often at the end of summer when tomatoes were abundant. Definitely freeze as much as you can---you will appreciate it in the dead of winter when you want a taste of summer!

Total heaven! Last year I used very ripe red tomatoes, this year Heirlooms. What different looking (and tasting) sauces, made exactly as specified, and both wonderful! The Heirlooms were watery, so I boiled them first and scooped some of the water out for vegetable broth (a nice two-fer). The owner of a local farm-to-table restaurant tasted my sauce and requested a few gallons. Definitely professional quality, (well, it's Julia Child!). Experiment (but only with tomatoes, nothing else).

Made this last summer with tomatoes from the farmer's market. Preserved the sauce and gave to friends for Christmas. This is a lush, delicious sauce. A real keeper.

I peeled off an orange peel and put it in the microwave for a very short time...works perfectly~
Muriel

I didn't have dried orange peel either, used a pinch of fresh orange peel zest and it seemed to work fine, sauce was fantastic

The original recipe called for the tomatoes to be peeled, seeded, juiced, and chopped. Yet, a food processor prepares the tomatoes adequately.

Anne-- I am sure your sauce was delicious, but the saffron and orange peel really do matter---they are essential to the character of this recipe.

A truly delightful tomato sauce - luscious! I expanded the recipe to suit my garden trove of ripe tomatoes. Five quarts of this summer treat now in the freezer. The rest will go into Jamie's eggplant parm recipe for this evening's meal.

Dried basil? And flour in a fresh tomato sauce? This recipe may stem from the great Julia Child, but I would not dream of using any of these two ingredients in a fresh tomato sauce. Leave out the flour and only use fresh basil, s'il vous plait.

It really really matters. The orange background is fantastic. I had to use a fresh peel and diced it rather than leave it whole so everyone gets a bit!

Make this with end of season tomatoes and only one substitution -used diced fennel instead of fennel seeds and sautéed with the onions. Fabulous flavor. Used 8.5 pounds of tomatoes and got ca. 8.5 cups of sauce which is now residing in the freezer for those cold winter days ahead.

This is terrific, though it took longer than an hour to cook down. Maybe my garden tomatoes were unusually juicy. Didn't have saffron or dried orange peel. Can't think it mattered much. Freezing in ziplock freezer bags for easy storage.

Don’t add as much salt as the recipe calls for. Cut each tomato in half horizontally. Squeeze over a bowl to remove as many seeds as possible. Then grate. Discard the skin.

Better, and more digestible: skip the food processor; just chop the tomatoes and put them in the pot with everything else. When the sauce is fully cooked, let it cool slightly, and put it through a food mill. This will remove the seeds and skins, resulting in a nice smooth sauce.

For someone new to using saffron, how much is a large pinch?

Not sure how I managed it, given the rave reviews, but followed this to the letter and wound up with a pretty unremarkable, albeit seedier, tomato sauce.

I followed the recipe exactly, and it was so good that I wasn’t even bitter about spending my carefully hoarded saffron in this manner. My wife even suggested we just have it as soup. That’s how good this is. As I continue to deal with the late summer glut of tomatoes, I just smile, because I know I will have quarts of this in the freezer all winter long.

Please share what you have paired this sauce with? Pasta? Fresh bread? Potatoes? The flavor profiles are so unique.

I skip the food processor. Instead, after simmering, I whirl it all up with an immersion blender. So delicious and easy!

It took much longer than expected for my sauce to reduce—still came out great though!

This sauce is awesome this time of year. I wish we had a bigger freezer. I'd recommend peeling the tomatoes, it adds a few minutes to the prep, but the food processor doesn't much like the skins. Fresh herbs make a big difference. Ms. Moskin, if you're listening, GO BROOKLYN!!

This is delicious, but I still end up with noticeable seediness at the end. Stick blender more or less takes care of this, but wondering if there is some other thing I should be doing differently along the way.

I'm not a fan of pasta/tomato sauce dishes.But this sauce sounds so good ... I'd appreciate suggestions on uses, other than pasta.Topping for a baked potato? fish? chicken breast? Mussels?What sounds right?Thanks!

I know it won’t be as good but can you use canned tomatoes? (It’s winter!)

This sauce is exceptional. I make big batches and freeze it in quart sized Ziplocks. Every time I taste it I can't help myself from exclaiming, "This sauce is SO good!" I would love suggestions on how to incorporate this sauce in dishes other than pasta. If you have a specific application for fish, chicken, or another dish, please do add it to the comments! I thought about baked chicken parm but don't think this sauce has the right flavor profile for that.

Wonderful sauce AND, with a little Pernod added, it makes a great tomato soup.

This sauce was fantastic (more floral, bright, and tangy than Italian variations), will certainly be making it again! A few notes:~GLUTEN FREE SUB: Instead of the 4 tsp AP flour, I used 2 tsp oat flour + 2 tsp cornstarch. Turned out just as silky.~Get the ripest tomatoes you can, it makes a difference.~Grating via food processor was labor intensive; I put the quartered tomatoes in a blender instead and I think it was a fine shortcut.~Definitely budget more than 1.5 hrs (took me ~4 hrs)