A Recipe

Well, I've been thinking about this for a while, and was having a bit of a dilemma, because this is not supposed to be a cooking blog. But I do love food. And in the last post I mentioned a cookbook I'd bought and a pasta sauce I'd made. Obviously, the picture at the bottom of the post, wasn't one of my pasta. I did think about posting a pic of the pasta I made, but every time I dished some out, I was so eager to eat it, I'd forget to stop and take a pic! Oops!!!

The thing is, that while tomato sauces for pasta are supposedly basic, there is a bit involved in getting the right texture and taste.

I thought that I wasn't very good at making tomato based sauces, but I just needed the right recipe.

Since I have very little experience, this is the best tomato based pasta sauce I've ever cooked. It's very easy, but you do need a few hours to let it simmer. You can make a big pot and then freeze some for another day. Apparently it's supposed to keep for a few months in the freezer. It's called "Basic Tomato Sauce" and it's from Cafe Food at Home by Gael Oberholzer. I don't have permission from Gael to share it, but I hope she doesn't mind, I won't be transcribing all the recipes in the book. If you like what I share, you're going to have to go out and get the book for yourself.

What you need is:

2 onions, finely chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, minced (I'm not exactly sure what a clove is, but I like garlic, so I added a few of those smaller pieces which break off when you buy that big round piece of garlic)

2 Tbsp (30ml) olive oil

3 x 400g cans whole peeled tomatoes (I didn't check the label properly when I was buying, I was post call, so I landed up with one can of unpeeled cherry tomatoes & 2 cans peeled italian tomatoes, but it was ok)

a few sprigs of fresh oregano, chopped (I couldn't find fresh, used dried, in the little bottle)

4 tsp (20ml) basil pesto or a handful of fresh basil leaves

a large pinch of chopped fresh parsley

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1-2 Tbsp (15-30ml) brown sugar

1) Gently saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil, then add the remaining ingredients.

(I think "gently saute" means fry, but with the stove at a medium heat, not too hot)

2) Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 1-2 hours.

3) Taste and adjust the seasoning. If the sauce is too acidic, add more sugar (the sauce should not be too sweet)

And that's that. Not difficult at all, but the herbs definitely make a huge difference to the taste. I used to add tomato sauce from a bottle to give my tomato pasta sauces a better colour and consistency. But this time I didn't have to and I thoroughly enjoyed the taste!