Sauce for pasta bake

[LunaMoona]

Have just made one and am not surprised that ds declined it - 'twas pretty rank. Anyone got any good suggestions for a sauce ?

I just fry off some onions, throw in fine strips of peppers or some mushrooms if I have them. Add a bottle of passata and pour over part-cooked pasta.

Or macaroni cheese style: a good home-made cheese sauce mixed in with some softened, chopped leeks and a few bits of browned bacon.

ooo that sounds divine SG, the leeks and bacon.
They sell leeks individually here, I mean charging per item as they tend to be flavourless giants .
I wonder if I could get ds1 to eat that, as it is too carb heavy for me on my diet and I would only take the dish to the bottom of the garden and eat it all and then gnaw off the crunchy bits with my teeth.

To answer OP, but a small pinch of brown sugar in with any tomato sauce as it cuts the acidity of tomatoes that can be off putting to a young child.

Good tip about the brown sugar sw - that's what was wrong with my sauce last night - just too damn sharp esp without salt and pepper. The leeks and bacon combo also sounds yummy doesn't it ? Thanks St George.

stG - a good home made cheese sauce ... can you tell me how. I'm trying to make my own sauces these days (i posted a while back for advice as i only ever used jars of sauce ) I'm not doing too bad now - curry is the only jar I've used in the last month or so [proud emoticon]!

If you don't make good homemade tomato sauce you can always use a can of campbells cream of tomato soup. I do when I'm in a hurry and they all love it. Just add herbs and seasoning.

Raggydoll, I still make my mum's white sauce recipe which is really easy to remember.
For 4 people:
40g butter
40g flour
400 ml milk
and you just alter the quantities - for 2 it would be 20, 20, 200 and 6 it would be 60, 60, 600 etc.
Method: melt butter in pan, add flour in bit by bit to make a sticky mixture then add the milk gradually, stirring to get the lumps out. Once all combined let it thicken on the heat (stir ever so often) and when thickened it is done. Season.

My mum bungs everything into a microwave dish with a lid (or it will go everywhere!) and microwaves it for 5 mins on high, stopping to whisk it every minute otherwise it goes stodgy. I find this a pain, and usually I am at the stove doing other things so giving it the odd stir then is no trouble.

To make a cheese sauce add a handful of grated cheese. To use this sauce for say, lasagne, add a bit of nutmeg. I pour it over cooked potatoes, top with cheese and (uncooked) bacon bits and put it under the grill or add a dollop of ketchup, add to cooked pasta and top with cheese for macaroni cheese. Very versatile.

There you go, a good recipe

I am incredibly lazy and don't measure anything, I just bung it all in but I have had years of practice.

If you want a lower fat alternative use semi-skimmed milk. I also use a product called 'Light Touch' instead of butter. It is a liquid butter substitute, low in fat.

Suzy - I use the cheese,leeks,bacon recipe for cauliflower cheese as well. To die for.

thank you. thinking we might have macaroni cheese for supper tonight