Fresh tomato sauce can be used for many pasta dishes and is easy to make using common kitchen ingredients.
You can use it to make lasagne, cannelloni or spaghetti bolognaise. It is also great combined with fresh Mediterranean vegetables to make ratatouille.
It can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the fridge. It can also be prepared in bulk and frozen.
Alternatively, you can make your own pasta sauce using tinned tomatoes.
Ingredients
- 500g fresh tomatoes - any type of tomato can be used so long as they are ripe or slightly overripe.
- 1 medium sized red onion
- 3 large cloves garlic
- A small dried chilli - optional
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 teaspoon dried basil - or homemade seasoning for pasta sauce.
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano - or homemade seasoning for pasta sauce.
- Dash of olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Water
How to prepare
Finely chop the onions and dried chilli. Peel and finely chop the garlic cloves.
Roughly chop the tomatoes. It is not necessary to remove the skins as the sauce will be blended.
Gently cook the onion, garlic and chilli in olive oil for a few minutes until soft. Add the chopped tomatoes and heat gently for a few minutes.
Add the tomato purée and salt and pepper, stir, and simmer for a few minutes.
Blend using a hand blender until fairly smooth. The sauce will be quite thick so you will need to add water to bring it to the thickness you want. This will vary depending on your how you plan to use the sauce for example you may want a thinner sauce for lasagne, or a thicker sauce for stirring into pasta.
Tips
- If you would like a chunky sauce then there is no need to blend it. A chunky sauce is suitable for dishes such as ratatouille.
- The amount of chilli can be varied depending on how spicy you want the sauce to be, or it can be omitted.
- Fresh tomato sauce isn't just for serving with pasta, you could also serve it alongside a variety of other dishes such as nut roast or apricot and nut sausages.
Recipes to use with homemade tomato sauce
- Cheese and spinach cannelloni2 Hours 18 Minutes
- Cheese and spinach ravioli1 Hours 5 Minutes
- Mediterranean vegetable stew (ratatouille with beans)45 Minutes
- Egg pasta1 Hours 3 Minutes
Fresh tomato sauce for pasta
Equipment
- Large saucepan with lid
- Hand blender
Ingredients
- 500 g fresh tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 small dried chilli
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- Water
Instructions
- Finely chop the onion and dried chilli. Peel and finely chop the garlic.
- Roughly chop the tomatoes. The skins do not need to be remo ved.
- Gently cook the onion, garlic and chilli in a little olive oil for a few minutes until soft.
- Add the chopped tomatoes and heat gently for a few minutes.
- Add the tomato purée and salt and pepper to taste, stir and simmer for a few minutes.
- Blend using a hand blender until fairly smooth. Add water and stir to make the soup the thickness you require.
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