to never go back to making my own sauce, or ask you how..?

[chasingtherainbow]

I've always cooked as much as possible from scratch (this is not a debate as to what qualifies as from scratch!)

So whenever I make spag bowl, I make my own sauce. It's always tasted good and we enjoy it.

However I've been poorly and dh did the food shopping. I requested some cheats to make life more manageable right now. He bought a waitrose tomato based sauce to use instead of making our own, and I have to admit it tasted way better now I don't want to go back! Even though I know my version is much healthier.

How do I make my sauce taste as good! Or wibu to continue to use this sauce from the fresh/chilled aisle and never tell anyone I can't help but think I'm going to be disappointed next time i make my boring in comparison own.

When I make my own I use: garlic Italian seasoning, salt & pepper, chopped basil leaves, peppers and onions, 2 crushed garlic cloves and Passata

where am I going wrong?

Red wine, celery and cubes of pancetta

Sugar. Teaspoon of sugar.

It would need a little sugar as it can sometimes be quite sour.

I usually have grated carrot and celery in mine. And plenty of seasoning.

But if you want to use a jar go for it. It's not as if you will be living solely on it.

I despise celery raw but it does improve tomato sauce, sugar also makes a huge difference. I think the main thing is length of cooking, it needs to reduce a bit to deepen the flavour. Possibly also making it ahead and reheating improves the flavour - like stews and curries?

Ohh really? Any particular type of sugar?maybe you are right about length of cooking too.

I'm not sure about celery though. I can only handle it in soups, although I can see that it might help. Maybe I should give it a whirl!

I make my own pasta sauce as well. I always add a bit of agave syrup to my tomato sauce as otherwise it can be bitter.

I like the Waitrose one too. And tbh I think my family prefer it to anything I have concocted. It's the first thing on my list every week.

celery salt is a good shortcut to getting the celery flavour.

yy to teaspoon of sugar.

Cook yours for a very long time.

I do mine in a slow cooker or a large casserole dish on gas 2 overnight - I use tomatoes, red onions, garlic, celery and courgettes with a good dash of smoked garlic salt. It cooks for 8-12h, then I blend it, add lots of basil, a glug of olive oil & reduce for another hour or two. If I have spare veges in I add them all - doesn't matter what, it's all going to be blended so the kids never know :)

A large casserole dish full makes around 5 600ml tubs of sauce for the freezer.

balsamic vinegar is aslo good to add

Behoove, I have to admit I was a bit all "this won't possibly taste as good as anything I can make" ..... Then was a bit when I realised how tasty it really was. .

I'm officially on a mission to make the best spag bowl ever now. Will make note of all these suggestions.

I use balsamic vinegar rather than sugar...the result is beautiful but add a small amount at a time and keep tasting...too much completely ruins it!

If I have it in, I use either smoked bacon or chorizo when I'm sweating my onions. And I take half my mushrooms and cut them really fine so they virtually melt into the sauce.

But I don't use sweaty peppers because I don't like them .

hic when do you add your mince?

Gatekeeper YY I forgot about balsamic vinegar. I do pop that in too.

grated carrot, streaky bacon, celery, tom puree

The Waitrose one looks quite healthy and doesn't contain any artificial ingredients. You could certainly keep getting it for quick easy meals. But I understand why you want to make a homemade one that is better!

What is in the waitrose one? or is that too obvious a question

I add a teaspoon of Marmite for a bit of extra flavour.

My favourite tomato- based sauce is carrots,onions,garlic and a bit of smoked bacon whizzed in processor. Fry in olive oil , add basil, Tabasco, s. and p( plenty).Then add a large crushed passatta and half a jar of water.cook for an hour or so. Add parmesan and a knob of butter. I also add mixed beans and turkey and sausage meatballs. Can be cooked in oven. This is a sweet and lovely sauce, based on Jamie Oliver's one I saw on his Money Saving Meals prog. I think he also adds butternut squash.

Pressed post too soon! I also add freshly grated nutmeg and tomato puree.

lately i have been adding a smidgen of chilli powder and sometimes cocoa powder, i always put cocoa powder in chilli con carne

Celery salt! I luffs it. Also white wine instead of red, dash of Tabasco towards the end - not enough to make it hot - and a stir in of Parmesan.

I use the Gino D'acampo recipe ginodacampo.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/gino-dacampo-italian-escape-tagliatelle.html

After years of trying to perfect Bolognese, this is the best I've found.

this one Iggly

If I have time and am feeling creative, I'll add stuff to it, but tbh it's great as it is, cooked for a long time with the meat.

Iggly I chucked the container so can't check but I think it was just a bog standard waitrose tomato and basil sauce. So nothing extravagant, just better than mine!