PProvenance
Enter
P
French

Sauce Portugaise — Garlic and Tomato Concassée

Portugaise is sauce tomate made more robust with the addition of garlic, onion, and fresh tomato concassée, producing a chunky, full-bodied preparation that sits between a classical French sauce and a Mediterranean stew base. Where sauce tomate is smooth and subtle, Portugaise is assertive — garlic-forward, with visible pieces of tomato that remind you this sauce is built from fruit, not from stock and roux alone. Sweat 1 finely diced onion and 4 minced garlic cloves in olive oil (not butter — this sauce belongs to the south) over medium heat until softened, 5-6 minutes. Do not brown the garlic — burnt garlic produces acrid, bitter compounds (acrolein) that no amount of tomato can mask. Add 500g of tomato concassée: ripe tomatoes, peeled (blanch 10 seconds, ice bath, skins slip off), seeded (halve crosswise and squeeze gently), and cut into 1cm dice. Season with salt, a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are acidic, and a bouquet garni of thyme, bay, and parsley stems. Simmer for 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes should break down partially but retain some texture — this is not a purée. Add 200ml of completed sauce tomate or demi-glace for body and savour. Simmer 10 minutes more. Remove the bouquet garni. The sauce should be thick enough to mound on a spoon but loose enough to spread when the spoon tilts. Adjust seasoning. Portugaise accompanies fried or grilled fish, eggs, and vegetables — anything that benefits from a forthright tomato presence. It is the sauce that stocks every bistro kitchen in southern France, the preparation that appears on the plate when the menu says simply 'sauce tomate' and means it.

ServesFour portions
Total55 minutes
Sourced1of 9 in BC
Cook
I

The Market List

The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.

3 tbsp
olive oil
Your own market
1 medium
onion
finely diced
Your own market
4 cloves
garlic
minced
Your own market
For the concassée
500 g
ripe tomatoes
blanched, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 cm dice
Origin · ItalyBosa Foods · Vancouver →
1 pinch
sugar
only if tomatoes are acidic
Your own market
1
bouquet garni
thyme, bay leaf, and parsley stems
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
200 ml
sauce tomate or demi-glace
completed, at room temperature
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
1 tbsp
tomato paste
optional; cooked out in the pan before adding concassée
Your own market
to taste
salt
Your own market

Each tap is counted, so the stockist sees the demand Provenance sends them.

II

The Method

1
Bring a pan of water to the boil. Score the base of each tomato with a shallow cross, blanch for 10 seconds, then transfer immediately to an ice bath. When cold, slip off the skins, halve each tomato crosswise, squeeze gently to expel the seeds, and cut the flesh into 1 cm dice. The concassée is ready when the pieces are clean-edged and free of seed pockets.
2
Warm the olive oil in a wide sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sweat, stirring occasionally, for 5–6 minutes. Add the minced garlic and continue to cook until both are soft and translucent. This step lives or dies on one condition: the garlic must not colour. Browning produces acrolein, an irreversibly bitter compound that no quantity of tomato will mask. The pan should smell of sweet allium, not of toast.
3
If using tomato paste, add it now and stir constantly for 2 minutes until it deepens to a brick-red. Add the tomato concassée, season with salt and a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes taste sharp, and nestle in the bouquet garni. The pan will hiss and the tomato liquid will release almost at once.
4
Simmer uncovered for 25–30 minutes, stirring occasionally. The tomatoes should break down partially but retain visible 1 cm pieces throughout. The sauce is not a purée; if it begins to look entirely smooth, remove it from the heat immediately.
5
Pour in the 200 ml of completed sauce tomate or demi-glace and stir to combine. Simmer for a further 10 minutes. The sauce is ready when it mounds on a spoon held level and spreads slowly when the spoon is tilted — thick enough to coat but fluid enough to flow.
From the canon — The fifth French mother sauce is often misunderstood because it shares a name with what most people think of as Italian tomato sauce. Sauce Tomate (Classical French — Not Italian — Stock and Pork) →
6
Remove and discard the bouquet garni. Taste and adjust the seasoning. The sauce should be assertive — garlic-forward, with the brightness of fresh tomato and the savour of the added stock base.
III

Quality Hierarchy

01
Reserve — Peak-season field tomatoes with genuine acidity and sugar; artisan sauce tomate or house-made veal demi-glace; cold-pressed single-origin olive oil.
02
Estate — Good-quality vine-ripened tomatoes from a trusted grower; a carefully made sauce tomate from the same kitchen; a reliable extra-virgin olive oil.
03
Market — Supermarket vine tomatoes, fully ripe; a decent commercial sauce tomate thinned with a little stock; standard extra-virgin olive oil.
04
House — Ripe plum tomatoes; well-drained canned diced tomatoes as a last resort for the concassée base, supplemented with tomato paste; any mild olive oil.
IV

Sensory Tests

◇Smell. The sweating aromatics smell of sweet onion and raw garlic — no toast, no acrid note; the garlic has not begun to brown.
◇Sight. After 25–30 minutes of simmering, the tomato pieces are softened but still visible as distinct 1 cm fragments — the sauce is not a smooth purée.
◇Touch. A spoon drawn through the finished sauce leaves a brief, clean channel that closes slowly — the sauce mounds when the spoon is level and spreads when it tilts.
◇Where it lives or dies. The garlic must not colour: browning produces acrolein, an irreversibly bitter compound that no quantity of tomato will correct.
Pillar V
Cross-cuisine parallels are part of membership.
The dishes this one teaches you, across the cuisines — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
VI

What to Pour

The pairing
Bollinger Special Cuvée
Bollinger · Montagne de Reims
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Sparkling wine
From British Columbia
Fort Berens Riesling
Fort Berens Estate Winery · Lillooet
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Wine
Without alcohol
GT's Synergy Organic Kombucha — Gingerade
Not yet stocked in British Columbia
Non-alcoholic

Why each one works is part of membership — Enter · from $49 a year →

The whole pairing
Pillar VII
Origin and lineage are part of membership.
Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
Enter · from $49 a year
Sourced through Provenance

The hands behind the plate.

Bosa Foods
Vancouver · ripe tomatoes
→