How do you make your tomato sauce (for pasta!)

[Totality22]

There are so many variations but I'd be interested to know what people's take is on a "basic" tomato sauce.

blitz in food processor 3 celery sticks, 1 onion, 2-3carrots.
fry until soft.
add a little garlic and stock powder.
add a tin of toms or passata
simmer for a while.
season to taste.

fry off:
1 onion
2 red peppers
2 carrots
Garlic (random amount)

Add:
4 tins chopped tomatoes
1 tin water
Squirt of Tomato purée
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
Splash of soy sauce

Simmer for 2 hours
Blitz

I think I'm lay compared to the above recipes.

I get some passata, usually the non-smooth type, and chuck in chopped up mushrooms, onions, herbs (from a jar), and anything else I have to hand. Sometimes I put some red wine vinegar in it, because one recipe I saw did that. I use the same basic mix for pasta toppings, bologna se sauce etc. In fact, I'm doing it to have with sphageyti and meTballs tonight!

Lazy not lay

Fry onion until soft, add garlic, add tin of toms or passata, add dry herbs and seasoning, maybe a teaspoon of sugar, simmer for 20 mins. Done.

Variations
Sun dried toms finely chopped
Fresh herbs at the end instead of dried herbs
Tin of mackrel or sardines plus olives maybe chilli
Adding roasted veg at the end

I buy jars from the supermarket

I put red and yellow peppers on a baking tray with red onion and garlic and olive oil. Roast till blackened but not burnt. Heat some passata in a pan and add peppers,onion,garlic then I put it in a blender to smooth thats it. I got it from bbcgoodfood its called roasted red pepper sauce.

my basic tomato sauce

tyne-teas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/spaghetti-and-meatballs.html

I do mine in a large pot rather than a frying pan. A little oil, with chopped garlic, red onion, peppers, courgette and a little celery. Cook it all til it's soft then add loads of tinned tomatoes. Then I cook on a low heat for at least an hour. I then blitz it with my stick blender but that's only because my DS is a fussy wotsit and would never eat it chunky! I make it in huge batches and freeze it.

Really finely chop onion and garlic. Sweat with salt and good glue of olive oil in a large lidded pan over a low heat. Finely chop carrot and celery, add to pot as they are chopped. Finely chop any combination of bell pepper, aubergine, leek, mushroom. Add to pot as each is done. By the time last veg goes in the onion and garlic will have been cooking for about half an hour. Add tinned tomato / passata. Rinse jars / tins out with small amount of water and add that. Stir all together, turn heat up and simmer for as long as you like. Towards the end season with salt and pepper. Can be blitzed smooth or left textured.

I tend to make a vat of it and freeze - add water or milk to turn into soup. Secret tips are to use plenty of garlic and olive oil, and be generous with the seasoning. ..

Olive oil
Garlic
Tin of Chopped tomatoes

Seasoning, Parmesan and basil if I've got it on top.

All these sauces sound lovely but they're vegetable sauces!

I made the most basic possible tonight - a couple of cloves of crushed garlic briefly sauteed in a glug of olive oil, then a blended tin of toms and a good squirt of tomato puree, oregano, black pepper; simmer till reduced down and add basil. Real 'store cupboard' stuff, and quick but tasted pretty good.

Sometimes I do it with red peppers; for my own taste I'd use celery/carrot but DD prefers it simple.

Bit of olive oil
Garlic clove, crushed
Tin of chopped tomatoes
Half a crumbled veg stock cube
Tbsp tomato puree
Tsp sugar

Fry the garlic in the oil for a min then add all the rest. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 mins. Add fresh basil before serving. Or you can add dried herbs with all the other ingredients.

Tonne of olive oil, couple of cloves of garlic (and sliced green chillies if you like spicy). Fry for a bit, add a tin of (decent) chopped tomatos and a handful of chopped up olives. Simmer until reduced and jammy looking. Season to taste.

It's lazy but the kids go nuts for it (they don't mind veg, so they get plenty of it with other meals-this is their I can't be arsed "treat" meal). Makes good pizza sauce too.

Onion,
garlic
passata
Worcester sauce
mixed herbs
if it's a bit sharp I sprinkle some

Really simple. Sometimes at peppers when frying onions.

2 hours of simmering? Nope, pasta sauce is my quick go to recipe. 15 minutes max.

Oh yes, big pinch of sugar too!

Sprinkle some cinnamon (no idea why the word disappeared)

Olive oil
Garlic
Red chilli if for grown-ups
Tin of chopped toms or fresh toms
Splash of balsamic
Sprinkle of Italian herbs
Salt & pepper
stew for 20 mins then blend

Oops forgot the onion!

Large thick bottomed sauce pan

Fry for few minutes in olive oil:
Shallots or onion (finely chopped)
Herbes de Provence
Half large red pepper (medium chopped)
Freshly ground black pepper
Maldon sea salt

Add:
2-3 Sun dried tomatoes (roughly chopped)
Zest of one unwaxed lemon (this is critical and cannot be omitted)
1 small tin of tomato puree
2 tins of plum tomatoes (roughly chopped in tin with knife)
Water

Bring to simmer, reduce over time to almost no liquid.

Remove from heat to cool. Adjust seasoning.
Finally, blitz with wand.
Hand shred some basil into mixture if desired.

This is great with pasta on as pizza topping.

Enjoy.

charitygirl1 you are of course absolutely right, but what I will say (about mine at least and I will imagine most other people's are the same) is that it tastes tomatoey and children who want tomato sauce are very happy with this "vitamin enriched" version.

Most basic and easiest would be fry chopped onions and garlic till soft (not brown) add a tin chopped tomatoes and thyme. Simmer for over 40 mins, you may need to add small bits of water during thus to stop it thickening too much.

If you don't simmer for that long it can taste bitter, hence why some recipes look for sugar.

Though if you make a sauce for decent quality tomatoes rather than tinned ones you can simmer for under 10 mins. Tomatoes apparently don't release their acidity until about 10 mins of cooking. (It then takes about 30 mins of cooking to cook off the acicity - hence the reason for the 40 plus minute simmer.

1 small finely chopped onion sautéed in olive oil. Garlic if I feel like it (doesn't always sit well with me). Carton of passata poured in. Little splash of balsamic, sprinkle of oregano, little pinch of sugar. Simmer away. Job done

Don't anymore as it's a fodmap, but my old favourite was:

Soften some crushed garlic and chopped chilli in a little olive oil.
Add some san marzano tomatoes and some more olive oil
Simmer for a bit, until the oil is dispersed through the sauce and gives it a shimmering patina.
Stir in the juice and zest of a lemon, plus lots of chopped flat leaf parsley, some maldon sea salt and some cracked black pepper.

Or, saute a red onion until golden, add chopped cherry tomatoes, simmer until they have broken down slightly. Take off the heat then add a few handfuls of torn basil leaves and stir through a couple of tablespoons of creme fraiche or double cream.

I use a casserole pot, frying off carrot, onion and celery (whizzed or finely grated) in olive oil and butter with plenty of fresh basil. Once soft, add tinned toms x 2 or one plus a carton of passata. Add a large pinch sugar. Cook v slowly for at least 30 mins. If grated veg originally, I blend once cooked. This is the dcs absolute favourite, they love it even more with meatballs made from blitzed brioche, parmesan and pork mince.