Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Basic Tomato Sauce

Store bought tomato sauce....never again! I came across a very straight forward basic tomato sauce recipe posted by Elise at Simply recipes. When i read the entire post, i thought she must be kidding but no....its true! Once you make the sauce at home, you will never want to buy the stale canned sauces again especially for the pasta and pizza!

It was Friday evening and I had announced a three course meal to my better half! Well, it was his b'day eve and we were bored with eating out......not many restaurant options around the place we live! We had already tried every possible place and did not want to repeat any more. I had planned to make Lasagna for dinner and when i took out my can of tomato sauce, I noticed it had gone past its usable date. So, I ended up with our all time friend google:-)

He gave me too many options but this one stood out of the rest! Being a vegetarian, this recipe was perfect and  I am so glad I decided to use it:-))

Ingredients:

- 1 medium onion (i used red onion)
- 1 medium carrot
- 1 medium capsicum ( authentically it has to be celery but i did'nt have it!)
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 5 medium tomatoes
- 1 tsp pepper
- 2 tbsp oregano
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Salt to taste
- 1 bay leaf

Prep time: 15 mins            Cook time: 30 mins

Preparation:

- Chop the onion, carrot, capsicum and garlic very finely.While doing this, boil the tomatoes on medium for about 10 minutes.

- In a deep pan, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil, add the bay leaf and then the chopped veggies. Cover and let them cook for 10 mins on medium flame.

- Add the oregano leaves, garlic, pepper and salt and let them cook for a further 5 minutes until the veggies are completely cooked and soft.

- The aroma that fills your home at this stage is fantastic!
- In the mean time, peel the skin off the tomatoes and deseed them all. If you add them with the seeds, it will make it more sour. You could use canned deseeded tomatoes too but that defeats the home made sauce concept:-)!

- Make a puree of 2 of the tomatoes and chop the remaining finely.
- Once the veggies are done, add the tomato puree and the chopped tomatoes. Mix well and boil for a couple of more minutes!
- Home made basic tomato sauce is ready!
At this stage you can whip the sauce with a blender if you prefer!
Foot note:

- You can add basil, thyme or other Italian herbs that you might have. If the flavours would be too strong for you, the herbs can be tied in a small muslin cloth and cooked along with the veggies. In the end, you can remove the bag of herbs!

I am sending this recipe to Herbs and Garlic event being guest hosted by :




7 comments:

  1. wow...sounds utterly delish..
    first time here...lovely space you have..
    love your presentation..
    Am your happy follower now..:)
    do stop by mine sometime..
    Tasty Appetite

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks aipi & jay! Thanks for following me too and encouraging me..

    ReplyDelete
  3. wow...this looks so delicious n loaded with flavors...lovely recipe..
    as u said so many event are happening in blogosphere..just check thru blog hopping n share your yummy recipes..keep rocking !!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Sangee....u r such a darlingoo follower:-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Such flavorful and aromatic tomato sauce..

    Cheers
    Muskaan

    ReplyDelete
  6. So flavorful and tasty. Thx for linking to the event.

    Vardhini

    ReplyDelete