Anyone got a good tomato sauce recipe please.

[Leander]

I am making meatballs tonight and wanted a good sauce instead of just using a jar. I've got all the usual storecupboard ingredients.Thanks.

I use passatta as my base. I like a roasted vegetable sauce. So I will roast some veg such as tomatoes, peppers, mushroom, onion, aubergine, garlic and courgette in some olive oil and basil. When cooked in oven I will add them to passatta with some seasoning and bllitz it all with the blender. And then add some roughly chopped basil at the end.

mmm that sounds lovely i dont have courgette or aubergine but could do the rest, thanks.

the secret is always always to buy the best passata. sainsburys does an organic one which is very good. Always add a pinch of sugar to passata, as it can be a bit acid otherwise.
Gently fry olive oil, garlic and chopped onion before adding passata. Then add the meatballs and some garden peas. It's going to be lovely

Hulababy - I second that sauce! A fab recipe indeed...
Failing that, if you don't have quite that array of ingredients, fry a couple of onions, red or white, with some garlic. Add passata or a few tins of chopped tomatoes, and some stock. Use herbs such as margoram, basil, oregano, thyme or a mixture, and simmer for a while. It may need a pinch or two of brown sugar to balance the acidic tomatoes. Blitz or leave chunky.

Depends what's in your meatballs really - I tend to make my meatballs quite spicy, and add chillis as well a red pepper and lots of garlic.

So the tomato sauce I make it relatively bland - a large onion fried/softened, tin of tomatoes, oregano and/or fresh basil if I've got any, then a couple of cloves of garlic finely chopped and added towards the end of cooking - makes it more garlicky if you add it later.

Garlic not compulsory by the way, we just like it in our house!

I just use whatever veg I have in TBH, same with the herbs. Sundried tmatoes go nicely too.

And if you don't like the tomato too tomatoe-t - stir in a bit of creme fraiche - yummy!

And make load in bathc for freezing, ready for quick pasta sauce next time.

I;ve bene making tomato sauce with my dad for years.. and truelly it dosen't matter what base you use.. and normally the very best thing is homegrown tomatoes there is no comparison to using passatta.. I have used cheap ass stripy tescos tinned tomatoes and just blitzed them with the hand blitzer and its worked lovely.. I think the real key is in adding a teaspoon of sugar (to counter the acidity of the toms) and dried organo (most important herb) and fresh basil (squeezie will do) and parmigan cheese...

sauce

2 tins chopped or whole tomatoes
1 or 2 cloves of garlic (or the squeezie kind if you are lazy)
1 onion
1 red pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp basil
parmigan cheese
glass of red wine (optional if you have it)

heat the oil in the pan add the garlic, onions, and the sugar (it will carmalize the onions). Add the red pepper.
add the tomatoes and the herbs and cheese, and wine if you have it, cook throughly then get out the hand blender and blitz it all until smooth. salt and pepper to taste. and reduce it if desired.

sometimes I make it as tomato soup the first night then add tomato paste the second night and reduce it to make pasta/pizza sauce.

Great thanks, so basically bung in whatever i fancy with passata.like the tip about creme fraiche.

sometimes I put cream cheese into ds once its in the bowl.. he likes his food pretty much stone cold and the chreamcheese cools it down and makes it well creamy and cheesey

v simple but time consuming method

fry onions v slowly for about 20 mins until soft and sweet but not brown. Add whole chili if want to make it spicy
Add tins of tomatoes (whole not chopped) and bring up to the boil. Then simmer on v low tempreture for about an hour or so. Then stir to break up the toms and cook for longer if sauce does not have the right consituency. Leave until needed. Just before using add more oil and herbs

My secret for meatballs is actually to season the meatballs well. then all the flavours infuse in the sauce.

1. add to mince the following:

• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 1 small finely chopped onion
• finely chopped parsley and coriander
• 1tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• salt and pepper Make meatbals

2. Make tomato sauce:

• 2 cans whole peeled tomatoes Use only the tomatoes. Keep the juice for later. Fry tomatoes in lots of olive oil+tbsp sugar to caramelize a bit. then add tomato juice from can. reduce heat and add 1 cinamon stick.Stir.

3. add meatballs gently. Cover. stir gently and simmer for 20 mn.