Give me your best pasta sauce recipes

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I usually try to make one using chopped tomatoes I have left in the cupboard but they never really taste amazing. I use onion garlic and other seasonings. But they still taste really basic!

Please share your favourite recipes or tell me where I'm going wrong..

Make sure you get some tomato purée in there, garlic, some stock cube and a splash of wine if you have it. If you like them, add some capers plus a splash of the brine they come in.

A can of good quality tinned tomatoes, I use mutti, soffritto, bay leaves, basil, a little oil, tom puree and I use some fresh chicken stock to loosen a little.
Cook low and slow, a good couple of hours. I've never had any complaints!

I like this one a lot. So simple, but very tasty. www.101cookbooks.com/five-minute-tomato-sauce-recipe/

As @FrankiesKnuckle said you need to cook low and slow. I always heard the rule fresh tomatoes should be cooked lightly, tinned low and slow. Doesn’t have to be a lot of work. A good cheat if you don’t have time is you can put 1-2 anchovies in the sauce to give it more depth. It won’t taste of fish I promise! It just melts and gives flavour - you’ll never know it’s there. Alternatively a splash of lea & perrins

Also whenever you cook with tomatoes you should use a pinch of sugar to balance the acidity.

fry onions first.
add some balsamic vinegar and reduce it. add tomatos, dried oregano, stock cube. garlic crushed into it only at the very end.
add some fresh basil and a glug of extra virgin olive oil.

One onion finely chopped, softened in olive oil with garlic, add about 2lb fresh tomatoes and a load of basil, stalks and all. Simmer for about 25 minutes. Season. Loosen the sauce with some stock or boiling water if needed to serve.

I serve with any pasta and top with Parmesan.

I’ve made this sauce a lot as we have so many tomatoes in the garden, and it works well.

Saute onions, sliced peppers, and half a chopped chorizo.

Add tinned toms & a can of water or stock.

Cook on a slow simmer for at least half an hour, longer is better.

Before mixing in the pasta, a glug of cream really makes it.

If you want it without meat, replace the chorizo with some smoked paprika for a similar flavour.

Whole or halved cherry tomatoes in a roasting dish (they need to be decent £1.60 a punnet still on the vine tomatoes not cheap 80p a bag tasteless ones).

Roast gently in olive oil and dried herbs (I find Schwartz's spicy Italian the best). Once roasted mush it all up with a fork and add the cooked pasta to the roasting dish and stir in until it's all coated with the oily tomatoey goodness.

Eat. Preferably with lots of fresh parmesan. Sometimes if I'm feeling really fancy I also add some pancetta or anchovies.

IMO Tomato pasta sauce needs onions, garlic, red wine vinegar, salt and sugar. And chilli flakes, but I add chilli flakes to most things! If a sauce tastes a bit meh then it usually needs more vinegar or salt or
Sugar which can all be added at the end. Or adding butter can help! Taste and modify before you serve!!

I must add that I use garlic infused olive oil and a herb mix with garlic in it for the recipe above. If you don't use those you need to add a couple of garlic cloves worth of garlic in as well.

I just use Passata, Onion, Salt, Paprika, Oregano, Pepper

www.nigella.com/recipes/pappardelle-with-lamb-ragu

Bit of a twist on spag Bol & quick too

Another:

pasta cooked in very salty water, then just tossed in olive oil, black pepper and loads of Parmesan is delicious.

Also mushrooms fried in butter and a little garlic and added to pasta with finely chopped anchovies a teeny tiny amount of cream or marscapone and chopped herbs/ spinach.

Many pasta dishes are supposed to be simple 'peasant' food

Two large red peppers roasted with a bit of olive oil with a red onion.

Pour in a can of Passata and a table spoon of red wine vinegar and a tea spoon of sugar. Blend, heat and eat 😁

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pizza-sauce

I rinse one empty tomato can with red wine and the other with balsamic.

Perfect for pasta and chicken.

Skin and deseed tomatoes and cook them down until they go creamy, LOADs of garlic and bacon then finish with cream and pepper

Fry garlic, onions, add some tinned tuna. Add tomato, seasoning and herbs. We call it tuna bolog. Divine.

This tomato sauce recipe is the best food52.com/recipes/13722-marcella-hazan-s-tomato-sauce-with-onion-butter

For something very different, try this, it's delicious www.nourish-and-fete.com/creamy-smoked-salmon-pasta/

Butter is the secret!

Heat (lots of) butter until it's sizzling, add lots of crushed garlic and sauté for 30 seconds. Add tinned plum tomatoes – I read somewhere that the cheap ones are still much higher quality than chopped tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, add a pinch of sugar, maybe some balsamic vinegar and any herbs you want (I often add chilli flakes). Let it bubble for half an hour until reduced.

When your pasta is almost done, add it to the sauce to finish cooking for the last couple of minutes along with a splash of the pasta water to loosen it.

@Defiantly41 is right - Marcella Hazan’s tomato sauce with butter and onion is the best. It’s delicious and it requires minimal effort - just let it simmer away gently until it’s ready.