Pasta

[SweetPeaPods]

Ds is 13m and we have had a few regressions with weaning after he got a couple of bad doses of gastrointeritis.
He is now much better with lumps and starting to enjoy pasta. But I'm lacking inspiration on different sauces for him. Do you make your own? Would anyone mind sharing recipes ? I've got an annabel karmel book but it mentions peeling tomatoes etc and I was looking for something simpler?!
Also I know many sauces can be frozen. Do you freeze the sauce separately or can I make a batch of pasta and sauce, mix it together then freeze in individual portions?
Thank you

Pesto is easy enough to make at home, basil, olive oil, pine nuts, a small amount of hard cheese eg pecorino, Parmesan etc. Blend in a mini blender.

Cream cheese stirred through hot pasta is an easy sauce - you can add steamed veg or whatever as well.

Instead of peeling tomatoes, you could just use cartons of passata to make a tomato sauce.

I've also made a carbonara style sauce before, as long as the egg is well cooked.

Any idea how much passatta I should use compared to tomatoes?

Oh, I'm a "chuck in as much as needed to cover the pasta" type cook, sorry. I would say that for baby food type quantities it would only be a little bit of a carton. Passata is quite thick already so you don't need much.

we freeze portions of bolognese and cheese sauce and then just cook some pasta when required.

you could make up a big batch of tomato based sauces (using the passata) and then freeze in portions

Yes, ilovepowerhoop's suggestion is v. sensible. I'm rarely organised enough to prepare stuff in advance, and if I do, I then forget it's in the freezer...!

Ilovepowerhoop you don't happen to have a recipe do you?

Pesto is great:

40g Parmesan
40g pine nuts
1-2 cloves of crushed garlic
Juice of half a lime
Most of one of those large live basil plants from supermarket
As much oil as you need.
Pepper

Whizz it all up. That much does me, DH and dd for dinner with some left over for pasta and pesto, pesto on toast or little blobs on home made pizza.

Tomato sauce

1 onion
1/2 red pepper
1/2 orange pepper
Garlic
Time of chopped tomatoes
Italian herbs
Paprika
Pepper

Fry onion, peppers and garlic until soft. Add in tinned toms and seasoning. Simmer for 20 mins to an hour (tastes better the longer you leave it)

I whizz it up as well as it sticks to pasta better but you don't have to.

I also use it for pizza toast for lunch or the base for home made pizzas.

I'll often double the amounts and freeze a ton of it.

tinned peeled tomatoes are also good for sauces and means you dont need to faff about with peeling them.

If you google there are simple pasta sauce recipes using passata and/or tinned tomatoes

e.g. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/aug/01/how-to-make-perfect-tomato-sauce

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/quicktomatosauce_3068

My pasta tomato sauce would be
1 onion
I clove of garlic
1 carrot
1 courgette
Can pasatta
Fry onion garlic and grated carrot
Add courgette cook until softened
Add tomato simmer for 20 mins
Add 1/2 tsp sugar ( per AK recipie)
Purée with stick blender
FreeZe in cubes

Also do a white sauce & add cheese also freezes In cubes. I usually added broccoli as well to make it healthier.

AK recipe for hidden veg sauce

www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/vegetable-sauce

Something dead easy is 1 cube of frozen spinach defrosted and a large spoonful of cream cheese. Add to the cooked drained pasta along with some pepper and a tiny bit of grated nutmeg. Stir until combined and the spinach is warmed through.

I also roast an oven tray full of tomatoes, peppers, aubergine, onion and courgettes covered in olive oil. Once nice and soft I then mash it up roughly with a potato masher and freeze in portions.

I make a tomatoe sauce

Basic - x2-3 tins tomatoes, 2 onions, few garlic cloves, mixed herbs.

I add mushrooms/ carrots/ courgettes/ whatever we have after frying off the onions and garlic . I just chop things and simmer for an hour or so, don't blend. Freeze in portions big enough for whole family. ( above makes a portion for family to eat and portion to freeze, sometimes more if lots of veg)

Oh and mine like salmon, peas, cream cheese as quick meal, mixed into pasta

Peeling tomatoes? Sod that! When I'm feeling lazy I just stick a tin of tomatoes in a sieve, then heat it with some frozen sweetcorn, peppers, garlic etc and add flavourings like balsamic vinegar, Worcester sauce, herbs.
Heston Blumenthal makes cheese sauce in an interesting way - heats milk then adds grated cheese coated in flour. It's a bit easier than the traditional way.