As tomato season and tomato shares have been arriving, I'm sure the one thing we've all been thinking about is how to make a good tomato sauce. The terrific site, Apartment Therapy: The Kitchen, had a post up yesterday about this particular subject:

When we make tomato sauces, we reach for the deep, tall, and thick-sided dutch oven.

Not so fast says The Joy of Cooking:

The faster a tomato sauce is cooked, the fresher and brighter its flavor; hence we prefer using a wide skillet that lets liquids evaporate quickly.

We made the batch of tomato sauce today with perfect balance: lively acids and sweet ripe Greenmarket tomato, complex basil and garlic, and rich carrot sweetness. It's all in there and we'll give the wide pan some of the credit. In this case, the quicker cooking time keep the flavors more complex.

Also, the pan's helper handle made it easier to life the pan on top of our food mill.

Take a look at the comments, too - there's some great stuff in there.

Photo credit: Meg Cotner