to lie about my pasta sauce?

😂😂😂 don’t push it. BBC’s recipes are excellent!

There are so many things that bother me about your post - that you say she "scares" you. Why would you choose to say it that way, instead of saying that she makes you feel inadequate or that she makes you wish you were more energetic? And why would you lie when your child might possibly reveal the truth, and you'll feel even stupider?
You should not only tell the truth, but not apologetically. If you look at it sensibly, you'll see this is an opportunity to score a point, to show it's not necessary to be "perfect" to please a child. You'd say, Oh, I'm so pleased she liked it, but it's only...
On the other hand, I wouldn't text her. I'd ignore it until the child asks again, and then say, Tell your mother to telephone me. Make her ask you for it.

I'd just say "Oh, I don't use a recipe. I just add a little of this and a little of that, depending on what I have on hand."

Saying you have a recipe but won't give it to her sounds kind of smug to me but this way, you seem like a super-duper good cook who can come up with wonderful sauces on the fly. :)

Yes, channel Terry. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it

I had this with a friend, but it was the Schwartz Tuna Pasta Bake. She always cooked everything from scratch.

I'd be truthful. A jarred sauce is really different from anything I make.
The kid eats it. The mum can try to replicate it if she wants.

Hahaha, thats the same in my house. My proper homemade bolognaise is served with spaghetti with cheese on top with garlic bread and never finished. but my extra onion and garlic dolmio one served mixed with maccaroni with cheese on top i always get asked for seconds. You can't bloody win!!

Actually this is genius!
Look up some intricate Ottolenghi pasta sauce recipes, mix them up and tell her is your own version of Ottolenghi with mango chutney as the secret ingredient. And you make your own organic sun dried tomatoes at your villa in Italy (actually your 95 years old Italian neighbour kindly does this for you because she can't bear wasting any tomatoes)
Because

1. A lot of his recipes are ridiculously complicated and include ingredients such as virgin snake tears and mung beans dried at the edge of an active volcano and picked up by pink one winged three eyed vultures
2. I've learned from MN that adding a tablespoon of mango chutney lifts any dish (amazingly this is true and I use this trick all the time)

Or, or, or .... put some Dolmio sauce in a plain kilner jar and gift it to her saying it's a secret recipe from the Italian mother of your first love! You can never share it with anyone.

But you know what children are like... she probably wouldn't eat the exact same sauce at home anyway.

I reckon she'll be relieved. I did similar and messaged someone about their chicken bake recipe, and was pleasantly surprised when they revealed it was a tin of Campbell's mushroom soup! I'd tried lots of different recipes trying to get it right which were much more effort!

If she’ll eat Dolmio with peas and sweetcorn she’d probably eat a really simple tomato sauce with them added?

So just a tin of tomatoes with garlic and herbs, plus salt and pepper and a tiny pinch of sugar. Herbs could be something like oregano, basil and/ or parsley.

No idea what they’d mean by “herb” though 😂

I two types of bolognese... my proper one from tomatoes, veg, herbs etc... and lazy nights of mince, Dolmio, pasta...

Guess which one the DCs polish off...

I'm at the point of calling vegetables "pesky nutritious lumps" now.
They loved veg when they weaned over a decade ago.

I'd probably just admit that it's Dolmio. If she's got an issue with it, it's a her problem not a you problem.

I remember the thrill of having tea at friends' houses. I remember raving about brilliant cheese sandwiches from Sarah's mum (white bread, marg, cheese slices). I remember telling my Mum and she must have realised what I ate as I still remember it. She probably felt a bit 🙄 because I probably didn't race about her lovingly made home cooked dinners.

I would either be honest or else be vague. If you asked me exactly what I put in pasta sauce then I don't think I could tell you. I just make it up. Depends what veg I have. A pinch of sugar always takes the edge off the tomatoes' acidity though.

Dolmio is the best. It's made by puppets you know!

Lol.. me too! I am a really decent baker, of anything other than Choc cake, but you just can't beat 'Aunt Bettys' special recipe... Also with her choc icing

Balsamic does the same 😋. Matts cafe sloppy Joe is so good.

https://www.giallozafferano.com/

Here you go @TerryHall - bit more bouji than BBC good food 😆

Tell her you add red wine vinegar to a basic chopped tomatoes, onion, garlic, basil etc.
And then actually try making it.
It really makes the sauce zing!

I think you can make a friend here OP! Tell her the truth and commiserate over your kids being fussy buggers!

500g 5% minced beef.
3 mixed Peppers.
1 onion.
2 oxo cubes.
3 garlic cloves.
Oregano.
Mixed herbs.
Red wine stock pot.
2 tins of tomatoes
Swirl tins with water.
Tomato puree when nearly done.
Plus the extra veg.

My kids love it 😀

Ok I’m a shite cook but even I can make a decent basic pasta sauce, anyone who has tried it when they’ve come over has raved about how good it is.

Fry 2 chopped cloves of garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil over a low heat.

When fragrant add a tin of chopped tomatoes, half a vegetable stock cube, 2 tablespoons of tomato puree, half a teaspoon of sugar and a sprinkle of oregano. Heat over medium-high heat until bubbling then reduce heat to a simmer. Give it the odd stir and 5 mins later you have the perfect pasta sauce.

And then you can add the sweetcorn and peas 😁

Vagueness is your friend here.

'It's just a basic tomato sauce with some peas and sweetcorn thrown into it LOL'.

My son used to come back from his Dad's raving about his step-mum's Special Pasta. He loved it.

I texted him to ask her for the recipe. He was evasive. Asked again. Ignored me. Cornered him at next pick up and got the recipe: tomato puree and grated cheese.

Your recipe is infinitely classier. I thought it was hilarious but also - 12 years on, my teen still makes himself Special Pasta here.

The mum won't care if her kid enjoys it.

I'd come clean. I've also made the same for my kids many times.

I remember my mum once had a similar situation. Another mum told her that her daughter really loved the dessert she had served and could she have the recipe. It was jelly!

Dolmio is literallly some passata with a bit of onion, garlic, some sugar and a few dried italian herbs- you could easily make a virtually identical sauce from scratch.