Plum tomatoes

If you grow your own tomatoes, they're probably sitting on the windowsill, crowded together like too many diners at a narrow table. New Englanders wait all year for native tomatoes, which are terrific sandwiched between slices of crusty bread with a little mayonnaise and salt. In fact, there isn't another sandwich quite as good. Still, after a week or so, most cooks are ready to take the red orbs to the stove. For sauces, you need plum tomatoes.

Ask any Italian-American cook what life was like in the family kitchen, and you'll hear about a grandmother making "gravy," a hearty meat sauce. Young brides knew how to make homemade pasta and gravy before they left home.

Those old-fashioned sauces were simmered all morning, but nowadays, some cooks prefer a sauce that simmers briefly and has a fresher taste. Begin by removing the skins on plum tomatoes -- simply dropping them into a pot of boiling water for a minute, then peeling them, will do this. But don't remove the seeds. "The inner part of the tomato is as important as the brilliant red outer shell," writes Elisabeth Rozin in "Blue Corn and Chocolate." The seeds are the part of the fruit with the highest concentration of vitamin C, and they contain much of the tomato's flavor.

Coarsely chop the flesh. Before adding it to a pot, film the bottom with olive oil and cook a halved clove of garlic until it is golden. Then add the chopped tomatoes. Ripe native tomatoes break down quickly -- 10 minutes is all they need -- and as they're already peeled, you don't have to blend them or pass them through a food mill. The sauce is chunky, with enough body to coat steaming pasta. I like to add a pinch of crushed red pepper; you can also add olives and anchovies to make the famous puttanesca, or ground meat and chicken livers with a hint of cream for a Bolognese. Or toss the mixture later with shrimp and scallops for a classic seafood dish.

Italian Roma tomatoes are one ideal variety for sauce because they're not watery. Choose ripe, deep-red fruits without green tips, and never refrigerate the tomatoes or they'll lose their fragrance and flavor.

Your sauce will taste great. Better yet, it will be ready by the time you finish cleaning up. -- JULIE RIVEN