SAUCY!!!!

[groat]

Just read on another thread about making own sauces.
Anyone got any recipes or hints on how to make own pasta sauce and casserole mixes.
Always buy them and would love to make my own especially with hidden veg in.
Not too tomatoey (sp?) though.
Thanks

I have a few.

Tomato sauce
3 tbsp oil
3 small red onions, peeled and chopped
2 Red Peppers, chopped
3 courgettes, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 stalks of celery, chopped
1 large pinch of dried oregano or mixed seasoning
6 400g tins of toms (but you could adjust that if you wanted)
2-3 garlic cloves (again adjust if your not a fan)

Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of a deep pan.

Fry onion, celery, pepper, courgette, carrot and garlic for 5-10 mins

Add the oregano and toms, then season.

Simmer for about 30mins.

Liquidise when cool and freeze the extra sauce.

I use that for loads of things. It's a good sub for bolognese orif I just fancy doing a simple dinner, just heat up and pour over fresh cooked pasta. You could do loads with it.

The other sauce which I find is a god send, is the Veloute sauces. It's a great staple because you can add different ingreadiants to suit what your eating.

To make 1/2 pint

3/4 pint/425ml veg stock (I very rarely have this in so use water and it's just as good)
1oz/25g butter
1oz/25g plain flour
2floz/ 60ml single cream (optional), I only use this when making the Garlic variety
salt an pepper to season

Melt the butter

Beat in the flour and cook on a low heat until it becomes a thick paste.

Remove from the heat and cool. Then add stock a little at a time until it keeps thickening up.

Bring back to the boil and keep stirring.

Turn down heat and simmer for 15 mins.

If using, add cream and bring back to simmer.

Variations - to be added at the simmering stage
Mushroom sauce - Add 2oz/60g chopped mushrooms

Tomato and basil - Add 3 tbsp of tom puree and basil

Garlic - Add 4 cloves of garlic and mixed herbs.

Again the tom and basil goes great with pasta or meats like chicken and pork.

The mushroom is another good pasta one, serve it up like a carbonara sauce with bacon etc.

The garlic one I use on loads of things. I think I've served it with all meats. It goes with everything.

The basic recipe to start you off is a great white sauce recipe so that does well for veg on sunday dinners and also gammon/bacon joints.

HTH

thanks nbg that's brilliant.

Sorry to jump in, but I'd like to ask Nbg what other ways you could use the 1st tomato sauce apart from bolog and pasta. I'm looking for ideas too, but really need them spelled out to me - could you list some other meal ideas for me please???? thanks in advance

Hiya MrsJ

You could use it for anything you wanted.
Like I mentioned, you could use it as a replacement bolognese or just over pasta for a really easy dinner. You could make some canneloni and use it with that.

Depending on if you adapt the recipe you could even have it as a soup, serve with fresh bread yummy.

You could even use it just pour over meats.
I often find that I have loads of pork chops or chicken breasts in the freezer so using the sauce is an easy way to make it a bit more exciting.

Even just over a Jacket potato with some salad.

What I love about it, is that it has some good healthy ingreadiants in so if my dd has had a bad few eating days I know full well I can pour a load of this over some pasta and she will scoff the lot, lol.

Oh I tell you what else is good.
Throw a bit of chilli powder in it or tabasco just to give it a hit.
Cut up some potatos in to 1-2cm cubes, par boil and then fry to finish cooking.
Pour over your sauce and there you have a spanish Patatas Bravas. Yummm