I know his has been done before but can I have a pasta sauce recipe

[Virgil]

So that I can stop using jars for bolognese. I want to batch cook a load but don't want it to be bland. Whenever I've tried before its basically tasted like tinned tomatoes. Anyone have a foolproof recipe?

Dice however many onions, (depending on size and your taste.) Red Peppers, Yellow Peppers, Green Peppers, Courgettes, Mushrooms, anything else you fancy chucking in and fry in Olive Oil.

If desired add thinly sliced bacon rasher or two.

Onces the onions are softened add garlic puree/granules/fresh garlic crushed to taste.

Add mince and brown.

Add however many tins of toms seems appropriate for the amounts of other ingredients and tomato puree to taste.

Add dried italien herbs, or fresh if you have them.

Simmer for at least half an hour or until the sauce is really thick and gloopy (technical term).

Serve over pasta with a sprinkle of cheese.

Don't make a tomato based sauce and freeze it. All the flavour is lost in the freezing process. I tried this once with the most delicious sauce I'd ever made (can't recall recipe) and the batch out of the freezer was utterly tasteless. Preserve it in jars if you have to.

Ah that's interesting todays. Maybe that was the problem.

Right, going to give that recipe a go!

I think passata gives you a nicer result than chopped tomatoes which can be pretty watery. Also a good tomato sauce needs plenty of time in order to reduce and the flavours intensify. Finely chop onion and garlic, soften in some olive oil with appropriate herbs, add passata, a pinch of sugar, some salt and plenty of black pepper. Then simmer really slowly for at least 40 minutes before using, stirring occasionally.

I always freeze it too and find it fine.

I think tomato puree definitely and the tip about passata is a good one. I love tinned tomatoes though so probably not much help!

Can't believe no one's mentioning wine. When you've browned the mince add a glass or two of red wine and let it reduce by about a third on high heat.

Also proper bolognese shoud simmer for hours.

Chop onion, garlic and red pepper into small pieces and fry until soft in a little olive oil. Cook bacon in a separate pan until crispy and then add to onions, garlic and pepper. Add carton of passata and heat through on a low heat until simmering. Season with pepper and add mixed herbs, then give a good stir. Add about 1tsp (no more) of sugar to take away some of the acidity of tomatoes in the sauce.

Ooh yes, wine is lovely! And bay leaves. My mum always puts bay leaves in hers, leave them in whatever you do to it - through simmering, chilling, freezing, storing and only remove when on the plate.

Definitely wine. I freeze mine and it is lovely. When I'm doing a batch, I sometimes put it is the slow cooker for a few hours or in a massive pan in the oven for a while.

the secret i think is time. - you start with what i think is called a soffrito - a mix of finely chopped onions, carrots and celery. Cook these on a very low heat with plenty of olive oil until so soft they almost melt. This should take at least 15 mins. Then add mince and brown on higher heat. Then add your tomatoes. I find the best thing is either to use passata or whole toms- chopped toms become bitter. Bring to boil and then cook on very low heat for at least an hour, prefably two. If using whole toms only break the toms up after an hour . Milk and the rinds of hard cheese added to the toms also make the sauce much richer. Another tip is to use cheap fatty mince and not steak mince. you need the fat to deepen the flavour of the sauce
This makes an incredibly rich and yummy sauce which goes really far

some olive puree or balsamic vinegar give it a nice savoury flavour. Cook slowly for as long as possible. Often better reheated and you can skim off extra fat at this stage. A spoon of flour added to fried off ingredients before adding tomoatoes can help it be nice and gloopy rather than bits of veg and meat floating in juice. Deffo need wine and garlic, black pepper and basil and oregano.

Chop onions n soften. Add garlic n chopped mushrooms. Cook in 2 tablespoon of tomato puree. Add tin of chopped tomatoes, 2 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar, 1 bouquet garni and bring to the boil

I made a delicious tasting pasta sauce that the kids loved the other day by roasting chunks of carrots with a few wedges of red onion and a couple of cloves of garlic and olive oil in the oven for around 40 minutes till very soft, then blitzed it in the food processor. Serve hot with pasta and grated cheese.