Simple sauce ….

A VERY USEFUL TOMATO SAUCE  ……

It’s always good share simple ideas – and here is one that I am always keen to have in my freezer.

I had busy time last week – lots of cooking and a few veggies left over along with a huge box of spare cherry tomatoes from the market. Got a bit carried away with the BOGOF!

So I chopped up my spare carrots, celery, red onions – added garlic and sautéed them in some olive oil for about 5 mins. I then washed my cherry tomatoes and tipped them into the pan. I added a little bit of water to stop the bottom sticking and then simmered for around half an hour. I have an Aga, so once the tomato mixture was up to heat, I popped it in the bottom oven – but you can just as easily do this on the hob.

The final mixture is  a mush and soft orangery colour. I put my whizzer into the mix and blitz it to a fairly smooth texture. I added salt, pepper – and a bit of sugar, to really bring out the flavours of the tomatoes – and whizzed again. I could have also added chopped herbs.

With this ‘very useful tomato sauce’ you can make so many dishes. It was the base of our meatballs on Sunday night, a topping on the melted cheese nachos on Saturday evening, and part of my lunch today as a simple tomato soup. With the rest, I filled up an empty milk carton and put it in the door of my freezer – and I know I will use in a chilli, bolognese or part of a soup in the next couple of weeks.

There’s no real recipe to this – You need to make sure your tomatoes are two thirds of the ingredients to get the balance right. And instead of carrots & celery, I could have just as easily used red pepper, courgettes or squash as part of the gang.

For more ideas and recipes – come and join me at my regular cooking demos. Informal groups of up to 8 people, around my kitchen table, tasting and chatting. A 2 course lunch/supper is included along with welcome coffee & homemade cakes, recipes to take home and lots of inspiration!

"So pretty"