Tomato Sauce

This is by far and away the best Italian Tomato pasta sauce I have ever tasted.

A good tomato sauce was something that always interested me but I was never happy with my efforts until I was shown this recipe by a good friend. What I learnt the most from it is that simplicity works.

The sauce has a few layers or stages to it and all up you will want to set aside about 2 hours to cook it. Within this time you do not have to be standing by the side of the sauce as you will cook everything on a low heat and only are needed to stir and keep a watchful eye on the sauce.

The sauce starts with very slowly cooked onions, the rule of thumb here is the longer the better as you want to release all that natural sweetness from the onion and this will happen when you let it cook on a low heat for a long time. Next you will want to add your Brown Sugar, paprika powder; Grained Mustard. I like to add one at a time and let it cook into the onions for a couple of minutes so it starts to leave its signature in the flavour. Finally it is the Red Wine & Tomatoes. This sauce will cook for a least 90 minutes further with you stirring the sauce every 15 minutes, remembering to add some fresh basil every time you stir the sauce.

All up the Tomato sauce is super simple to make and the taste is amazing...

The recipe below is enough for 4 generous servings so I like to keep half in a sealed jar - it will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

Serves 4      Cost of sauce: € 4.00
 
Ingredients
50g Butter
3 medium sized onions
2 Cloves of Garlic
Tsp seeded mustard
Tsp of paprika powder(if you like things spicier use chilli powder here)
Tsp Brown Sugar
Glass of red wine
3 tins of chopped tomatoes
Handful of Fresh Basil Leaves
Salt & Pepper

Cooking Utensils
Thick bottomed saucepan
Wooden spoon
Chopping board
Sharp knife

Preparation
- Finely chop the onions & garlic

Cooking

  

- Sauté onions in the butter on a low to medium heat until the onions turns translucent (after 5 minutes add your chopped garlic)– try to keep the onions here for a minimum of 10 minutes but the longer you cook the onion the better as it caramelizes naturally
 

- Turning up your heat to a medium level now you will want to start to add the chilli powder to the onions. I like to use the Indian style of cooking – adding one at a time and allowing it to infuse with onions)
 

- Firstly add your paprika powder & mix with your onion and cook for a couple of minutes
 

- Repeat with your Brown Sugar & then your seeded mustard
 

- Now add the Red Wine. Let the onions and Red Wine fuse together for about 5 minutes
 

- Finally add the jars of tomatoes & mix completely
 

- Turn heat down low and simmer with the lid removed for about 90 minutes.
- Stir every 15 minutes – everytime you stir add a small handful of fresh basil leaves to the sauce
- Season with salt and pepper to taste.

You now have your basic tomato sauce - you can add this to a Spaghetti Bolognese, Lasagna or eat with meatballs. Or simply eat by itself with freshly grated Parmesan

Suggestion:
Why not try my Mozzarella Garlic Bread recipe with this


ENJOY!!!