I'm a lurker, and a foodie. I've considered writing before to share my take on the best of food... But few things in life are are as obnoxious as foodie proselytizing.
When I opened the diary today, Breaking Bread: Sauces, I thought to myself "Oh! Cool topic"; sauces are the foundation of most cuisine. Some sauce styles are more traditionally complex, such as Mexico's Mole and Pipianes styles, few other sauces reach those peaks of labor.
The basic sauce mentioned in the diary was a tomato sauce. Both one of the classic Escoffier "Mother Sauces" and an almost stereotypically Italian sauce, it is most frequently simple; indeed, one of the hallmarks of the Italian cuisine is simplicity, reduction and clear presentation of flavors.
As I read the recipe I felt a little like Seth Meyers doing Weekend Update. "Really?! Celery, Red wine and soy sauce in a foundation tomato sauce? Really?"
I'm not trying to be mean spirited or uncharitable; hate the recipe not the food writer. There are some fundamentals of taste and texture that can help a chef or cook understand and parse a recipe. I'm just offering some thoughts on some of the choices made, and how and why I would choose differently.
Diced canned tomatoes and tomato sauce
Some people are big snobs about using canned tomatoes. I'm not one of them. I think it's quite possible to get a very good tomato product from a can, if you find the right one; and it's a necessity out of season. There is one very easy rule to canned tomato products however; that cut canned tomatoes always contain a preservative to harden the individual pieces, so they don't appear mushy. They also usually start with a firm (read less tasty,) tomato.
It's no coincidence that the very best canned tomatoes are exclusively packed whole with minimal presevatives. You don't see imported D.O.P. San Marzano diced canned tomatoes.
It's perfectly easy to break up canned tomatoes, even while cooking. A wooden spoon or even an immersion blender in cases, is suited to the job, and can produce a divinely textured "chunky" tomato sauce.
If you use whole tomatoes they are almost always found in robust sauce, and not the mixture of juice and sauce typically found in diced tomato...so you don't need extra cans of sauce to make up for that deficit, either.
Onion AND Celery
The traditional recipe for tomato sauce as practiced in good Italian places doesn't include them, but you can make a case for AN aromatic in a foundational tomato sauce. Tomatoes and onions are both relatively significant sources of cellular glutamic acid; the savory or unami flavor. They are sympathetic flavors and work together, although you could stew whole peeled halved onions in your sauce, and subsequently remove them.
I prefer a pureed mix of the onion,garlic and oil together, which you sautee until deeply fragrant, and slightly browned. The distribution of flecks of aromatics throughout is unobtrusive, but gives improved savory taste. You can use some garlic in a coarse chop for further taste.
Celery? I really consider that a bridge too far. It's not a ragu or thick minestrone we're making... Not that I have anything against celery. Mirepoux in the right place is great.
Soy Sauce
Soy sauce's contribution is largely a mix of salt and free glutamic acid (read MSG - from the yeast fermentation.) Tomatoes do need appropriate salting and can live with more than average, but you simply don't need soy sauce if you use aromatics appropriately; soy/MSG is a useful culinary cheat that I don't object to, but when you can use cellular and not free sources, you should.
P.S. Shoyu is something you should consider vs. Soy sauce.
Red Wine and Balsamic Vinegar
Some flavanoids in tomatoes are alcohol and not water soluble. Adding booze is not a coincidence in Italian tomato sauces, the most famous of which is Vodka Sauce; vodka is an almost completely neutral spirit, and cleanly intensifies tomato taste. In Vodka Sauce it's used to up tomato intensity to compensate for the added dairy. I almost always use it when some portion of the sauce will be refrigerated; cold kills some tomato flavors.
Red wine is definitely a potential candidate for an alcoholic addition, but is more suited, in my opinion for a hunters chicken sauce or similar, but you'd be going with stronger additions like capers and so on too; Red Wine is tannic and needs to be balanced by other robust flavors in a sauce.
Maderia and Marsala are much more complimentary to the fundamental tomato taste than red wines, although you should use wine you'd drink separately, rather than a cooking wine in any event, of course.
Balsamic vinegar is essentially an acid for purposes of this recipe. Acids are frequently used in food to compete with bitter compounds. If a sauce isn't bitter you need less (or no) vinegar. The celery and red wine both have some bitterness, and you're probably getting some from the cut tomatoes too. You don't need to muddle the flavors of the tomato if you don't introduce bitter components.
I'd probably go with a little sugar (to taste) depending on how good the tomatoes were. Sugar is similarly an acid plus tomatoes and sweet go together (although too much can be cloying.)
A flexible basic tomato sauce
Carmine's is a NYC institution. They offer ne-plus-ultra 'family style' Italian dining. Their "Carmine's Family-Style Cookbook" is an excellent no-filler, no-fuss recipe reference, which has an extensible tomato sauce recipe:
Makes about 5 cups
THREE 26 TO 28 OUNCE CANS ITALIAN PLUM TOMATOES (WE USE SAN MARZANO)
1/4 CUP OLIVE OIL
1/4 CUP COARSELY CHOPPED GARLIC (FROM ABOUT 12 CLOVES GARLIC)
12 FRESH BASIL LEAVES, SLICED
2 TEASPOONS CHOPPED FLAT-LEAF PARSLEY
1 TEASPOON SALT
FRESHLY GROUND BLACK PEPPER
(authors note, if you're chilling this and maybe even if you don't, I'd suggest 1/4 cup Vodka)
1. Drain the tomatoes in a colander set in a large bowl for 5 minutes. Reserve the tomato liquid
2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and cook it, stirring, for about 5 minutes or until golden brown. If the garlic starts to cook too quickly, reduce the heat.
3. Add the basil, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Cook the mixture for 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, increase the heat to high, and cook them for about 5 minutes, using a wooden spoon or long-handled fork to break them up, or until the tomatoes boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes or until the tomatoes break down.
4. Add the reserved tomato liquid. Increase the heat to high and bring the sauce to a boil. Boil it for 12 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Stir it occasionally and scrape the bottom of the pan to prevent the sauce from burning.
5. Transfer the sauce to a bowl and set it aside for 1 hour or until it cools to room temperature. Transfer it to a tightly covered storage container and refrigerate it for up to 1 week or freeze it for up to 1 month.
2:24 PM PT: A couple of comments have mentioned that I was a bit harsh on the original diarist. I apologize. No offense was intended, and I don't wish to start a food fight ;)
I did have experience of a few dozen variations of tomato sauces over 20 years, and I do have different preferences for some of the choices, and some, I think, solid reasons.