Basic Tomato Pasta Sauce

I love fresh tomato sauce to accompany my pastas, fish, meat or even just to dunk my breads in. I normally make mine in a large quantity and batch freeze them in plastic containers and it helps a lot when I have to fix a quick meal for friends or family. And this is a sauce that I cannot do without. I use this basic sauce to make my Chillies, Lasagnas, Bolognese, Pizza topping to name a few. I adapted my recipe from Jamie Oliver's recipe quite some time back and have never looked back since then. No matter what I can always offer my sudden guest a bowl of pasta bolognese for supper. :)

Ingredients : 

4-5 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Onion - 1 large peeled and evenly chopped

Garlic - 3-4 gloves crushed

Canned plum or chopped tomatoes - 3x400gm cans

Fresh Basil Leaves - a handful, torn

Dried Basil - 1 tsp

Dried Marjoram - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Ground Black Pepper - 1/2 tsp

 

Method : 

Heat the olive oil in a wok. Add the onions and garlic and fry on medium heat till they start changing colour. 

Add the fresh basil leaves and tomatoes and move around. With the back of a wooden spoon/spatula mash and squash the tomatoes as much as you can. 

Add the dry basil, marjoram and mix well. Season with salt and pepper. Take the wok off heat as soon as it reaches boiling point. Pass it through a coarse sieve in to a bowl, using the spoon to pass the larger bits of tomatoes and onions through as much as possible.

Discard the basil and garlic. Scrape the tomato from the back of the sieve into the bowl too. Bring the sauce back to boil and check seasoning. This consistency will be perfect for bolognese sauce and spreading on pizzas. For Chilli con Carnes you'll have to loosen up the sauce by adding more water to it. Check seasoning every time you loosen up the consistency. 

Store it in an airtight glass jar and it will keep upto a week in a fridge. Or divide the sauce equally into plastic freezer safe containers or zip lock pouches and freeze them.