If you are asking the question “I need a good spaghetti sauce recipe?” then you have come to the right place. My recipe is not just good, it’s great, very yummy, extremely frugal and, as far as I can tell, healthy.

I hated tomatoes and the only tomato based food I would eat was pizza but one day I was at a friends house having dinner and was presented with a plate of pasta smothered in “Dolmio brand” pasta sauce. Out of pure politeness I decided I would try and eat it. To my surprise it was quite nice but still not perfect and buying of the shelf sauces is much more expensive than home cooking so I decided I would try my own.

Now I love pasta sauce (still hate raw tomatoes though!!)

I built this recipe up over time. I never read any recipes and started from scratch just guessing what would work out, so if you have any suggestions for improvement or extra frugality, please let me know.

INGREDIENTS: (produces around 5 good sized servings, can be frozen and easily reheated)

• 4 tins plum tomatoes (Cheapest are fine I have discovered)
• 1 Medium Onions
• 2 Cloves Garlic (or to taste)
• Vegetables (Use your favorite, a few carrots, some broccoli, courgettes and green/red peppers work
• well using a handful or so of each)
• Dried or chopped fresh Basil to taste
• Salt or Soy Sauce to taste
• 1 Tbl spoon Molasses or Sugar
• Olive or canola Oil

COOKING:

1. Chop the onions and vegetables into chunky pieces
2. Chop the garlic finely or use a garlic crusher
3. Heat a small amount of oil in a large wok or pan and then add the onions and garlic. Fry for a few minutes until slightly browning.
4. Add the vegetables and fry for a few minutes making sure you keep stirring.
5. Then you can just go right ahead and add all the tinned tomatoes and make sure th heat is fairly high.
6. Straight after add a tablespoon of molasses / sugar, this helps to break the tomatoes down and gives a slight sweet taste.
7. Now keep watch on the tomatoes and stir and slowly crush them with your stirring device (this will get easier as the cooking goes on) until it starts to produce a lumpy sauce (should be about 10mins)
8. Add a small amount of salt or soy sauce (to taste) then add loads of basil.
9. Keep the whole thing simering for another 10-15mins longermaking sure you keep coming back to further crush the tomaties and stir the mixture.
10. Then serve straight onto whatever type of pasta you wish.

I told you it was simple and I give you my word it is very nice!

I use this recipe quite often and make it is varied batch sizes depending on how many ingredients I have in the fridge. It can be easily frozen and reheated in a pan or microwave.

Variations and Alternative Uses

In many ways this sauce is a base sauce and can be adapted to make many different pasta sauces or even different dishes.

• Add chickpeas, beans and varying vegetables to get different textures and tastes.
• Other herbs can be mixed or replaced. I like using Thyme and Rosemary
• Adding a little cream can turn the sauce into a Rose style sauce that is great over Tageatelli.
• A little chili powder can make an Arrabiata style sauce.
• A great vegetarian chili can be made by adding mixed beans, chili powder, red and green peppers and corn to the base source and simmering until hot throughout.
• Add some curry powder to make a basic curry that is great over rice.

If you have any other ideas or suggestions, please let me know

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 12th, 2008 at 3:14 am and is filed under Freebies and Offers, Recipes & Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.