Tomato sauce recipe

[Tinks15]

Has anyone got a nice tasty tomato sauce recipe that I can use for meatballs? I’ve tried a few in the past off google & they seem so bland & tasteless. Not looking for anything too snazzy as my two young DD’s has got to eat it.

Thanks!

Plenty of onions. Slice and fry until soft and golden. Add tinned chopped tomatoes , additional water, garlic paste , salt and plenty of black pepper. And most importantly a generous teaspoon of sugar. Cook the sauce slowly for longer, I aim for at least 40 minutes.

It’s the sugar and slow cooking that makes all the difference.

I roast lots of tomatoes with whole garlic cloves. Drizzle with olive oil and add salt. Hot oven for about 30 minutes. Push whole lot through sieve. Tasty and easy.

I don’t make meatballs any more as I don’t eat meat, but when I did I made them with a handful of semolina in the mix, then I fried the meatballs until the outside was brown. Then baked in the sauce.

Agree above re the sugar, even a tea spoon will make all the difference. I like the jars/tetra paks of passata you can buy in the supermarket, passata is sieved and strained tomato so it is already thicker and smoother than tinned tomatos, and you can buy versions flavoured with herbs or onion and garlic so that saves effort, you can then just tip into a pan, add sugar, extra seasonings or herbs (I quite like to add a dash of Worcester sauce for richness/savouriness) and salt/pepper (you may have to go easy on the salt for the DCs but do add some, without any it will def be bland), bring to boil and simmer until thick and tasty! You can freeze this sauce once cooked so I tend to do a big batch and separate into smaller portions for quick dinners...

If you sweat your onions enough you do not need to add sugar. I do a basic sauce - large onion, roughly chopped, sweat until transparent, then add tinned tomatoes and season well. Here you can add various things for different flavour - oregano is our fav at the moment, and a tiny pinch of chilli. Cook for 20 minutes on medium heat. Put through a blender, season and delish! Works great for pasta (add a few capers), meatballs (add cheese), fish (white fish like a cod cooked in the sauce served with rice) etc.

Here's my simple sauce

Olive oil in a frying pan
I Clove garlic whole

Tin of tomatoes

If I have it : spoon of pesto

And a good splosh of milk this helps give a creamy ness and sweeten toms and you won't need sugar

Simmer

Place all ready browned meatballs in a gently simmer till done

You can also make this as a pasta sauce but fry off bacon pieces with garlic first
Add olives and capers if you like!

Thank you all this is really helpful!

I put cheese in mine, either parmesan or cheddar. It makes it a lot creamier.

Roasting the tomatoes and any other veg you use like onions and peppers definitely enhances the taste of the sauce and "deepens" it.

I also roast garlic and any other odd bits of veg I've got lying around.
I Sprinkle the veg very lightly with balsamic vinegar and herbs too, then roast until just charred at the edges.

After roasting blitz everything together and dilute to the sauce thickness you prefer.

Half a cup of finely chopped carrots, half a cup of finely chopped celery and one cup of finely chopped onion, sweated in olive oil with a couple of cloves of garlic, chopped, a bay leaf and some oregano until it's soft and starting to go golden. Add a tin of tomatoes, a tbsp of tomato puree and a teaspoon of sugar. Salt and pepper to taste, cook gently for 20 minutes or so, blitz with a stick blender.

It freezes well so I make a big batch.

Fried large onion
Large carrot
3-4 whole celery stalks
Lump of sugar((I use muscovado)
Good pinch of oregano(I use dried)
A few garlic cloves
Salt,pepper to taste
3 tins of chopped tomatoes
Good slosh of red wine

This is an absolute classic from Marcella Hazan. The best tomato sauce I have ever made.

Slow roast fresh tomatoes with fennel, garlic, olive oil, oregano, sugar and splash of red vinegar.

When suitably slow roasted add to a pan with pasata or tinned tomtoes, water and simmer for an hour. You can blend it or just mash it all down with a fork.

Look up Nigella's moonblush tomatoes if it's flavour your after. I would never make a tomato sauce without roasting first. Tomatoes in the UK need all the help they can get.