WANTED: Recipes for Pasta sauces, please?

[CADS]

Trying to get away from using jarred pasta sauces, please share your homemade sauce recipes for things like spag bol, pasta bake and anything else you think is tasty.

Thanks

I tin chopped tomatoes
I tbsp tom puree
I pinch basil
One finely chopped clove of garlic
One " " onion
One " " mild red chilli
One chopped red pepper (optional)
1 cup quartered mushrooms (optional)

Fry onion, garlic and chilli in olive oil and then add a little lemon juice to sizzle

Add all the other ingredients and boil for 5 minutes, stirring vigorously.

You can add either minced beef/lamb, chopped chicken/steak/fish etc at the onion/garlic stage and just fry until sealed.

Roasted veg tossed with olive oil, herbs and feta cheese or mozzarella is really yummy and simple. Just cut peppers, courgettes, mushrooms, butternut squash etc into strips and spritz / drizzle with olive oil, bake in a roasting dish until tender and a bit caramelised, add a few sun dried tomatoes - god I am hungry now.

I do the same as trefusis. Often add finely chopped celery and or carrots with the onions (if I can be bothered/have them in). A rounded tablespoon of pesto added towards the end gives a lovely depth of flavour too. Also if I have any red wine open I'll add a bit of that.

Another regular is a tin of tuna, jar of pesto and cooked peas stirred into pasta: sounds a bit weird but tastes good!

Or roast a load of cherry tomatoes (same method as franny's roast veg). Sizzle some pancetta (the cubes or v thin sliced pancetta/streaky bacon). Then mix roast toms, pancetta and fresh basil with pasta.

Fry onions and garlic, add tin of tomatoes, tomato puree, chopped mushrooms, tin of tuna, herbs and black olives.Or use bacon instead of tuna.

Onions, garlic, green peppers, tomatoes, tom puree, capers, olives and anchovies.

Onion, garlic, bacon, mushrooms,parsley, then add cream cheese with garlic & herbs (e.g. Boursin) until it melts.

Giorgio Locatelli's Spaghetti with anchovy and tuna (which he claims children love) - serves 4

fry 2 quartered garlic cloves in olive oil, add 4 anchovy fillets and cook v gently until almost melting. Increase heat and add 250g tinned tuna, toss over heat for a few mins then add 50ml white wine - let it bubble for a few mins to allow alcohol to evaporate. Stir in 50g capers (rinsed) and 2 diced tomatoes. Toss spaghetti with the sauce, mix in 10 basil leaves and two tablespoons of good olive oil. If it seems too dry add a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water.

"Cecilia's Macaroni" (from Stuart Gillies)

250g macaroni
100g grated gruyere
200g good quality ham, diced
small knob of butter

Cook macaroni. Mix with other ingredients.

(couldn't be easier!)

very simple but delicious one here:

gently heat one tub of creme fraiche with a tin of drained butterbeans and 2-3 teaspoons of pesto. Add salt, pepper and freshground nutmeg to taste and stir into hot, cooked pasta.

I make a simple version of spaghetti alla carbonara as follows:

• Cook pasta
• While cooking fry some chopped bacon (or bacon lardons or - in an ideal world - pancetta)
• Beat some eggs (I use three for two people) with quite a lot of milk or cream (more than you'd use for scrambled eggs, as you want it to make more of a sauce)
• Drain pasta while still al denta (as you're going to go on heating it for a while, so it'll carry on cooking slightly)
• Add the pasta to the bacon (I use a non-stick wok for this, as it's easier to clean afterwards) and then pour in the eggs and milk/cream
• Keep stirring constantly from now on to prevent it turning into an omelette!
• Add grated cheese (not very authentic, but I use cheddar at this point) and a knob of butter
• It's ready when the sauce thickens and coats the pasta in a yummy eggy way.
• Add some black pepper and grated parmesan and serve

Kids love this too (if the bacon's too salty for littlies I use ham instead).

OMG, I meant 'al dente' of course.

The shame, the shame ...

lol ellbell

Or we had this last night...

Cook bacon lardons or similar (as below).

Boil asparagus tips and chopped stems till just cooked.

Cook pasta.

Mix together bacon and asparagus with creme fraiche and a good spoonful of the water from the asparagus for flavour.

Add the pasta when cooked and mix well.

Serve with black pepper and parmesan as before.

Just thought of another one we love ... if you can get hold of some proper italian sausages (or perhaps get away with v good non italian ones), chop each sausage into chunks and fry with diced onions in olive oil until cooked and slightly gribby around the edges, add tomatoes (tin of or chopped fresh ones or halved cherry ones) and serve with spaghetti. The sausages are so flavoursome you don't need to add any extra seasoning.

1 onion, 1 red/yellow pepper, 1 courgette, tin of chopped tomato's 1 tsp garlic and some herbes de provence and some diced chicken

fry the onion and garlic add the chicken cook till browned slighly then add the tin of tommies simmer, add the rest of the veg and herbs and cook for another 10mins or so
yummy and very quick and easy

Fry about 5 chopped rashers of bacon with a medium chopped onion. Mix in a couple of spoons of cream or creme fraiche. Stir in cooked spaghetti or other pasta. Takes about 7 minutes to cook and is delicious.

Thank you so much. You are all geniuses.

Fry off some finely chopped onions and courgettes for 5 mins. Stir in loads of double cream and loads of parmesan, add to cooked pasta. That is really tasty and only takes 5 mins. Oh and black pepper.

my ds loves this:

double cream-heat and stir in grated parmesan to taste.
add hams, peas and sweetcorn- then pasta
salt & pepper

Voila.