Home-made tomato sauce

Justin doesn’t normally get involved with the Thursday recipes – well, apart from taking the photos! However, this week, he’s actually done the cooking too. Don’t worry though, you’re in safe hands – as he was a chef for about 15 years before re-inventing himself as Mr H is for Home – and he does most of the savoury dishes in our household anyway.

We mentioned this lovely all-purpose tomato sauce in last week’s pizza post. Most people list tinned tomatoes in their store cupboard essentials, but we always have batches of this home-made tomato sauce in the fridge or freezer.

It’s quick – only taking about an hour – and very straightforward too.

It’s so flexible. The addition of ground black pepper and Parmesan makes for a simple yet delicious pasta sauce. It also provides the base for a myriad of other recipes. You can add all sorts of ingredients to it for some wonderful dishes – meatballs, chicken, fish, olives, roasted aubergines & peppers to name but a few. If you reduce it down and concentrate it a little further it makes the perfect tomato sauce for pizza topping. The recipe can be scaled up to suit requirements. You can also tweek quantities to suit your own taste – more garlicky, more olive oily etc… and add other herbs if you like too.

We make up a batch of home-made tomato sauce every few weeks and put a couple of two-portion containers into the freezer – ready to grab as required.

Click here to pin the recipe to Pinterest for later!

Home-made tomato sauce

2018-08-09 06:42:54

Ingredients

4 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
6-8 tbsps olive oil
6 cloves garlic
1 tbsp tomato pureé
1 tbsp granulated sugar
bunch fresh basil
salt to taste

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Instructions

Put the olive oil in a thick bottomed pan with the chopped garlic
Gently heat until the garlic starts to colour
Add tomato pureé, tinned tomatoes, torn basil leaves, salt and sugar
Simmer very gently for approximately 1 hour
Remove from the heat and strain.
Put through a second, finer sieve for an even smoother consistency

Notes

Quantities of ingredients such as the olive oil and garlic can be adjusted according to strength preference
Other herbs such as oregano, rosemary, thyme and parsley can also be added if desired

H is for Home Harbinger http://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Italian cheesecake with almond crumb base

Lidl had a ‘Taste of Italy‘ special this week so I stocked up on a few Mediterranean bits & bobs when I popped in. I bought a couple of tubs of ricotta, not quite knowing what I was going to do with them. Of course… Italian cheesecake!

I fancied making it with a crunchy base using amaretti biscuits but I couldn’t find any in the shops. No need to panic, I improvised and made my own almond crumb base.

I’ve made a fair few different cheesecakes in the past. I think this is almost up there with the all-time favourite Gordon Ramsey version.

It’s best served cold, straight from the fridge, perhaps with an after-dinner espresso.

Fancy giving it a try? Pin the recipe for later!

Italian Cheesecake with almond crumb base

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Cook Time 1

Course Dessert

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

For the base

40 g/1½oz butter
150 g/5oz ground almonds
30 g/1oz caster sugar
pinch of salt

For the cake

500 g/1lb 2oz ricotta cheese
150 g/5oz caster sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
juice from ½ lemon
25 g/1oz plain flour
15 g/½oz flaked almonds toasted (optional)

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF
Grease an 18cm/7-inch loose-bottomed cake tin
In a medium saucepan, add the butter and put over a low heat until melted
Remove from the heat add the almonds and sugar and combine well
Tip the mix out into the cake tin and press uniformly into the base using the back of a spoon
Bake the base for 10 minutes, set aside and allow to cool
In a medium mixing bowl, combine the ricotta and caster sugar until smooth
Gently beat the eggs in a measuring jug before adding gradually to the cheese & sugar mix. Stir well after each addition
Mix in the vanilla extract and then the lemon juice
Sift the flour into the mix and combine well
Pour the mixture on to the almond crumb base and bake for a hour
After the hour, turn the oven off and leave the door ajar allowing the cake to cool in the oven
Remove from the oven and sprinkle the toasted flaked almonds over the top
Allow to cool in the tin completely before removing

Keyword almond, cheesecake

Cakes & Bakes: Crescia

It’s Easter week, so we thought that we should make something that’s traditionally eaten at this time of year for this edition of Cakes & Bakes. We plumped for Crescia – an Italian cheese loaf.

You can use any hard cheese – parmesan, pecorino and so on.

The dough is simple to make and easy to handle.

It’s baked in a tall tin so it has a distinctive shape, like a panettone – the smell as it cooked was amazing!

A very handsome loaf wouldn’t you agree?

The bread is light and airy with a wonderful flavour. It’s traditionally eaten with cold meats. I’m vegetarian, but Justin volunteered to test this combination and tried it with some of his fennel salami – a perfect match he thought. It also works really well with various cheeses, olives, marinated vegetables, oil & balsamic vinegar etc, etc, etc.

We can highly recommend this loaf – and we certainly won’t be waiting till next Easter to make another one!

You can pin the recipe from here to try later!

Crescia

A light & cheesy Italian loaf enjoyed at Easter

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Cook Time 40

Course Bread

Cuisine Italian

Ingredients

300 g grated hard cheese such as Parmesan Reggiano, Pecorino Romano or Grana Padano
5 eggs
1 tsp cracked black pepper
pinch of salt
150 g olive oil
150 ml warm milk
1 tbsp yeast
½ tsp granulated sugar
600 g strong bread flour

Instructions

Put the grated cheese into a large mixing bowl
Break the eggs into a bowl or large measuring jug. Add the salt & pepper and whisk slightly
Add the egg mixture to the grated cheese, add the olive oil and combine
In a measuring jug, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk, add the sugar and allow to stand for 10 minutes
Add ⅓ of the flour to the cheese, egg & oil mixture and combine
Add ⅓ of the dissolved yeast mixture and combine
Alternate adding & combining the flour and yeast mixtures until it has all been incorporated and you have a smooth paste that comes away from the edges of the bowl
Cover the bowl with cling film/Saran wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for at least an hour or until the dough has doubled in size
Grease a high-sided baking tin such as a panettone tin (I used the tall bottom pan from my 3-tier steamer)
Generously flour a work surface, turn out the dough and knock back before putting it into the high-sided baking tin and again covering with cling film/Saran wrap
Allow the dough rise again until it has doubled in size (about 45 minutes to an hour)
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 175°C/350°F/Gas mark 4
Bake for 45-50 minutes until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes away clean
Remove the loaf from the tin straight away and allow to cool on a wire rack

Keyword bread, cheese,, Easter

Cakes & Bakes: Pizza

It’s pizza for this week’s Cakes & Bakes post. We’ve got a great pizzeria here in Todmorden – and we certainly can’t match their huge, wood fired oven… but we like to eat it in the house sometimes too!

There’s a very simple list of ingredients for the dough – flour, yeast, salt, olive oil, water.

With sub zero temperatures outside, the yeast mixture found the perfect place to come to life beside the fire.

The dough is simple to make and easy to work with.

Size and thickness is a matter of personal choice. In this house, Adelle has deep pan tendencies – Justin is a more thin & crispy kinda guy!

We rustled up a lovely tomato sauce. Olive oil, garlic, tomatoes & basil – cooked through, seasoned, reduced and strained.

This sauce was spread evenly over the pizza dough. Adelle then added roast aubergine, mozzarella and olives. Justin very similar, but he substituted Gruyère cheese for the mozzarella and also added red onion.

Both turned out very well – delicious in fact. We’ll continue experimenting with dough thickness, toppings and oven temperatures ’til we have absolute perfection!

If you have a garden, you can build your own wood fired pizza oven. You will make a unique pizza without leaving your home.

Easy pizza base

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Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Servings 3 medium-sized pizza bases

Ingredients

2 tbsp fast acting yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp olive oil
300 ml lukewarm water
500 g strong flour
½ tsp sea salt

Instructions

In a measuring jug mix the oil, lukewarm water, sugar and fast acting yeast
Leave in a warm place for 10 minutes for the yeast to begin foaming
In a large mixing bowl combine the flour and salt and make a well in the middle
Add the yeast mixture and combine to a smooth, firm dough
On a floured work surface, knead the dough for 5 minutes and form into a ball
Put the ball into the large mixing bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place to prove until it doubles in size - about an hour
Tip the dough back out on to the floured work surface, divide into 3 equal parts and flatten each into 1cm circles
Leave to rest for 15 minutes before adding toppings and cooking

Keyword pizza, pizza base