tomato sauce recipe

The best tomato sauce recipe is the one where is used the combination of preserved and fresh tomatoes. Many Italian bottle their home grown tomatoes in summer to eat throughout the cold months. Unless, like them, you have an abundance of tomatoes and the flavour has been ripened by the sun, this is the next best thing. The richness of flavour is much enhanced by adding half half the oil at the beginning and half at the end, but you can cut down on olive oil if you are watching your waistline as me.

So, I decided to make a lighter tomato sauce and the result was amazing. I liked so much its lightness that now I serve pasta with ligher tomato sauce on the top. This sauce is perfect for both long and short pasta and is also good to use in the baked pasta dishes.

Ingredients:

1 kg peeled tomatoes
4 carrots
2 onions
4 stalks of celery
a generous quantity of fresh basil
salt to taste
half teaspoon of sugar
small pieces of beef

Preparation of tomato sauce:

Finely chop the mirepoix (carrots, celery, onions) and put them in a pot with water.
Let this mixed vegetables boil until tender. Use the mixer to make the vegetables puree.
Add the canned peeled tomatoes coarsely chopped. You can pour the tomatoes on your hand to break them or alternatively a potato masher or fork break them.
Then wash out the can with few tablespoons of water and add this to the sauce.
Add the fresh basil, sugar and black pepper and continue to cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes.
Next add the cherry tomatoes.
Cook the sauce for further 15 minutes until the mixture is smooth and velvety. Add oil and sugar at the end.
Tip: if you are not using the sauce immediately, let stand it for 1 hour until cooled and keep in the fridge.
Your sauce is ready to mix in with your chosen pasta.