{"id":1861,"date":"2017-07-19T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2017-07-19T15:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villasentieri.com\/?post_type=recipe&p=1861"},"modified":"2026-09-02T10:59:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T17:59:18","slug":"moms-potatoes-with-tomato-sauce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/villasentieri.com\/index.php\/2017\/07\/19\/moms-potatoes-with-tomato-sauce\/","title":{"rendered":"Mom’s Potatoes with Tomato Sauce"},"content":{"rendered":"

July 19, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

Pasta.\u00a0 Potatoes.\u00a0 Bread.<\/p>\n

I crave carbohydrates.\u00a0 I can go about three to four days without eating pasta before I start to really crave it.<\/p>\n

Funny, because we only had pasta about once or twice a week while I was growing up.<\/p>\n

We did, however, have potatoes on many of the intervening days.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we’d have gnocchi (little pasta dumplings made with potatoes and flour) or pierogi (pasta stuffed with potatoes)!\u00a0 Though there are many other pierogi fillings, potato and cheese was the preferred variation in our house.<\/p>\n

Once, when I hadn’t been home from college for a while, I asked my mom to make either pierogi or baba (sometimes Anglicized to bubba)<\/a> for me for dinner.\u00a0 She made both.\u00a0 There wasn’t a piece of meat in sight.\u00a0 She knew me all too well.\u00a0 Meanwhile, the two college friends who came home with me were aghast at the absence of meat…and vegetables for that matter!<\/p>\n

Americans, by and large, are not protein deficient so the occasional meal without meat or another major protein source isn’t an issue.<\/p>\n

My mom’s potatoes with tomato sauce were usually served alongside sausage.\u00a0 Typically, it would be hot Italian fennel sausage that was browned in a skillet then braised slowly with some water to tenderize it.<\/p>\n

If we were having kielbasa, the second most common sausage in our house, my mom would make a version of these potatoes without the tomato sauce.\u00a0 She’d get the potatoes good and brown and then cover the pan for a bit to trap the moisture and tenderize the potatoes without making them mushy.<\/p>\n

Since my mom made a big pot of slow-cooked Southern Italian sugo most every Sunday, there was a ready supply of homemade tomato sauce for these potatoes.\u00a0 In my house, unfortunately, I don’t make that kind of sauce often enough (though I plan on changing that) and it always seems like a luxury to use some of it for these potatoes as opposed to putting the sauce on pasta.<\/p>\n

I have found, however, that my uncooked pizza sauce <\/a>works well.\u00a0 In a pinch canned or bottled tomato puree is good too (or even one of those 8 ounce cans of tomato “sauce”).\u00a0 If using canned puree, add a pinch or two of oregano for flavor.<\/p>\n

While Italian versions of potatoes cooked in tomato sauce usually end up being more “saucy,”\u009d this Italian-American version turns the tomato sauce into little more than a coating on the potatoes.<\/p>\n

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Mom's Potatoes with Tomato Sauce<\/h2>\n
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This variation on home-fried potatoes was common in our house. Cooking potatoes in tomato sauce is very Italian but this variation, which includes bell pepper and onion, and where the tomato sauce is basically cooked away, is more Italian-American. The tomato sauce could be leftover homemade pasta sauce (without meat) or pizza sauce. It can also be canned tomato puree. If using puree, I suggest adding a few pinches of dried oregano for flavor.<\/div>\n
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Prep Time <\/span>15 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Cook Time <\/span>1 hour<\/span><\/span> hr<\/span> 15 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div>
Total Time <\/span>1 hour<\/span><\/span> hr<\/span> 30 minutes<\/span><\/span> mins<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div>\n
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Servings: <\/span>4<\/span> people<\/span><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Ingredients
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