to lie about my pasta sauce?

You could also just look up a dolmio dupe recipe and send her that, there’s loads of them about

I do kind of doubt that it’s the modified maize starch that gets her daughter to eat it - does suggest she likes a thicker smoother sauce? So you could go with sofrito cooked on a low heat, ad garlic, Italian tinned tomatoes, cook low and slow and bashed with a spoon, thyme, basil… And then you put sweetcorn in (BLEUGH hate sweetcorn)

Or perhaps your passata is brought over from Italy from a close Italian in-law

I once had a woman staying with me who was bloody demanding over her food. She wanted fish for dinner ( I’m a lifelong vegetarian) and it had to be wild caught, not farmed ffs…… I’d cooked a meal with a whole load of veg , lots left. So the next day I cooked onions, added garlic and a tin of tomatoes, chucked in the leftover veg and puréed the lot. Put it on pasta. She raved about it, best pasta sauce ever. I told her it was a recipe from my friend who owned an Italian restaurant in England ( the friend bit’s true) She was very impressed.

Yes, yours is your nan’s recipe and a family secret.

If you then get comments about it not tasting the same as your sauce explain that different brands of dried herbs can affect the taste. I know from experience that a certain supermarket's oregano is horrible, very aniseedy, for example.

Not to be a fun sponge but seriously, why not just tell her? Her daughter likes it, clearly wants to eat it at home and the Mum is happy shes eating veg. To go to the effort of fabricating a recipe seems ludicrous, and to what end? Save the tiniest bit of face because you buy jar sauce like the millions of other people who do, because you think she’s some domestic goddess who would judge you for it? That’s pretty judgemental in itself!

AI uses tonnes of energy to run. Is asking it such trivial, frivolous questions really worth it??

I have zero words available to describe my horror at your Dolmio belief.

Just send her the non jar equivalent recipe. When eventually she says it doesn’t taste the same just say you wing it and have adjusted it over the years so you’re not fully sure on what else to say.

All my “recipes” are sort of ever evolving so I wouldn’t be able to pass it on either.

I would be the same as you!!!
just tell her you cook a tin of tomato’s with some garlic and fresh basil, then add some veg and pasta.

I always add a teaspoon of salt to my pasta sauce, and a half teaspoon of sugar. The recipe I use says to - the sugar is supposed to do something to bring out the flavour in the tomatoes.

I agree though, sounds like the recipe I use.

1. finely chop onions and galic
2. if using dried herbs (basil and parsley, teaspoon each), add them in now
3. add in a tablespoon of olive oil
4. sauté until onions are soft
5. add 1 700ml bottle of tomato passata (I use mutti brand as it’s the nicest one), 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, 1 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and fresh herbs, and vegetable stock (I make my own but you can just add 1 cube)
6. cook for about 20 minutes on low.
7. if the sauce is too runny you can thicken is with 1 tablespoon of cornflour mixed with 1 tablespoon of water, add the mixture in and cook for another few minutes.

I’m all in on Team Lie for this one. But keep it fairly simple and loose (like “ah, I just soften some onion and garlic, throw in a carton of passata and a can of chopped tomatoes, some mixed herbs, salt, pepper, you know, whatever comes to hand, and then whatever veg I’ve got in the fridge that needs using up”).

Vagueness is your friend here OP. Maybe sometimes you throw in some sugar, maybe sometimes some peas. Kinda depends, right? So when she mentions some bleeding obvious ingredient (tomato puree, for example), you can say “Oh yeah, of course” like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

Whatever you do, don’t over complicate things or make out that it’s a specific recipe. That way lie doom and damnation and you won’t be able to style it out.

Been there, done that, worn the t-shirt of shame with the same friend for the last 30 years. They still haven’t let me forget…..

If her daughter’s not eating her veg at home but loves it at yours then I suspect scary mum’s wholesome, scratch cookery might be shite, if that helps you feel better

Tell her that you make it with tomatoes that you grow yourself, then peel and deseed before putting them through a fine sieve, cooked with vegetables and herbs you grow in your allotment. Oh, and the olive oil comes from your relatives in Italy, they handpick the olives and make their own oil. And the salt, you collected from your last trip to the sea, dried the water and so on.
Just kidding, tell her the truth!

Ha ha tell her you make it from freshly picked organic tomatoes from your allotment PLEEEEASE!!!!!

Look at the ingredients on the side of the jar and list them along side your frozen veg: tomatoes, onion, concentrated tomato purée, basil, peas, sweet corn.

Only a real wanker would tell a mum trying to encourage her kid to eat food that you have a 'secret recipe'.
I cook everything from scratch, I wouldn't judge a good jar recommendation my child enjoyed but I would massively judge a gatekeepery 'secret recipe' excuse!

Simple pasta sauce, cook a tin of good whole tomatoes, Mutti or the like, with garlic cloves, salt, basil leaves. Or use whole tomatoes. Strain it and it’s very tasty. Just say it’s that. Maybe a secret ingredient they you’re not prepared to share.

Just tell her it's a basic passata with a few herbs and garlic /onion chucked in and you sometimes blitz whatever you have to hand e.g carrots into it.

Not really a recipe as such. Quite basic.

Omg like the episode of friend with phoebes cookie recipe passed down from nestle tollhouse 😂😂😂😂😂

Just tinkle laugh and say “oh you know, just a tomato base with whatever veg I have to hand”, if she pushes then it’s onion, garlic and passata reduced to thicken and chuck in veg or basil or cheese. Basically all it is anyway. Don’t need salt or sugar added

even if she is a ‘whole foods only’ fan you would be doing her a favour by telling her her kid loves a jar of sauce with corn in it - so much pressure on mums these days - share the simple wins

Put the dolmio ingredients into ChatGPT and it it to generate a liked recipe with quantities

I use honey instead of sugar…it really gives it depth.

I make the best Chocolate fudge cake, passed down from my aunt Betty Crocker…..