Lycopene Loving – Classic Pasta Sauce

What do you do when you see tomatoes on sale for $1.99 a kilogram?  Why make pasta sauce of course!

Another first for me, and with out a recipe, The following may not be the most time effective way to achieve a great tasting sauce, but it is definitely a winner if time is on your hands!  Another bonus of this sauce is that it contains no stock powders, thus no gluten.  If you are not concerned about gluten and are looking to save time, you can easily replace the recipe’s stock (really just infused water) with stock powder.

Classic Tomato Pasta Sauce

• 2kg Roma Tomatoes
• 2 Onions (finely diced – separately)
• 1 Carrot (finely diced)
• 4 cloves of Garlic (pressed – separately)
• Tabasco Sauce to taste
• Fresh Basil, Oregano, Thyme to taste
• 1 Bay Leaf

• Carefully make a shallow ‘x’ at both ends of the tomatoes.
• Pour boiling water over tomatoes and set for 1-2 minutes until skin loosens
• Drain, reserving approx 1/2 water
• Place reserved water in pot over high heat and bring to a boil
• To boiling water add off cuts from pre-cut onion, carrot, a couple sprigs of thyme and oregano, bay leaf, plus a clove of garlic to create a stock
• Once tomatoes have cooled, remove the skin, adding skin to stock
• Roughly dice tomatoes
• Once stock has been boiling and reducing for at least 1/2 hour (the longer the more intense the flavour), strain stock into another pot and add half the tomatoes, bay leaf reserved from stock and a pressed garlic clove, a few drops of Tabasco sauce, salt, pepper and sugar – to taste
• Allow this tomato mixture to simmer partially covered for 1/2 to 1 hour
• Remove bay leaf – blend till smooth
• In a separate pan – heat oil and saute onion, garlic and carrot
• Add remaining tomato to pot and continue to sweat down until all are tender (10-20 minutes)
• Combine onion/tomato mixture with tomato puree and fresh herbs. *Once again the longer you allow this sauce to simmer the more fully the flavours are able to develop
• Taste and season accordingly.  *This sauce will need a couple spoonfuls of sugar and a good hit of salt and pepper.  I also found a generous amount of fresh basil really gave this dish a fresh, sweet flavour.
• Remove bay leaf and any other fibrous additions- blend till as smooth or chunky as you  like it.
• Serve over you favourite pasta!

Enjoy!