I discovered the following recipe for a tomato sauce in Nigella Bites when I was making her Pasta with Meatballs and after I read Sharon’s comments, I decided I had to share it! The sauce is so easy and versatile, you can have it on it’s own, with meatballs, mixed with mince for bolognese or lasagne or even chile con carne.

I have cooked this sauce many times and have made a few adaptations to suit different occasions and diets but first, here is the original recipe.

Ingredients

1 Onion
2 Cloves of garlic
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbs unsalted butter
1 tbs olive oil
700g bottle tomato passata (or 2 tins of tomatoes blended until smooth).
Pinch of sugar
Salt & Pepper
100ml full-fat milk

Put the onion, garlic and oregano into the processor and blitz to a pulp.

Heat the butter and oil in a deep, wide pan, then scrape the onion-garlic mix into it and cook low heat for about 10 minutes. Don’t let the mixture catch, just let it become soft.

Add the bottle of passata and then half-fill the empty bottle with cold water. Add this to the pan with the pinch of sugar and some salt and pepper, and cook for about 10 minutes.

The tomato sauce will appear thin at this stage but don’t worry as it will thicken a little later. At this point you can continue with Nigella’s recipe and add milk, meatballs and cook for 20 min which will thicken the sauce. Or if you want to use the sauce in a different way, leave out the milk and reduce the sauce until it has the thickness you require, then add your mince or simply pour over pasta.

Another great way to use this sauce is as a pizza topping and you can even add other veg to the sauce - a useful way to get more veg into children!. I added a carrot to the onion, garlic and oregano mix in the processor and blitzed the whole lot together. I reduced the sauce right down so that it wouldn’t run off the pizza and it was thick and luscious. It really works well with gluten-free pizza bases which adsorb that delicious tomato flavour (I got mine from Johnson’s Provisions).

A yummy tomato sauce which can be adapted so many ways. Easy, versatile and so tasty, it’s my favourite tomato sauce.

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