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!
- 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
- 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
- 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