Pasta Sauce

Packed full of vegetables and with no added sugar this is one of the best tomato based pasta sauce recipes. The advantage of making something as simple as pasta sauce yourself is knowing exactly what's in it!

I make this in a big batch so that I get at least 3 portions, one for right away and two for the freezer. While I like tomato based pasta sauces, I find the shop bought ones are often a bit acidic and are really just chopped tomatoes with a bit of garlic and herbs. Adding the carrots, celery, onion and blending it all together gives much more depth of flavour and brings out the natural sweetness of the veg rather than having too much acidity from the tomatoes.

I'd usually recommend to do all your veg prep, 'mise en place', before starting to make a recipe but this is an exception as you want to cook the onion low and slow to start with. While it's cooking away on the hob you can chop the carrot and celery and look out the other ingredients. This recipe does require a hand blender, blender or food processor to get the cooked sauce nice and smooth. If you don't have one I'd suggest finely chopping or perhaps even grating the veggies. Your sauce may be more soup like but it should still work. Let me know if you try this in the comments below.

Now, depending on how much water you add you should end up with between 1.2 and 1.4 litres of sauce. So you'll happily get 3 or 4 portions depending on how you want divide it up. I usually like about 400mls for a pasta sauce so I tend to go with 3 portions. This way there's enough for a pasta bake or for a 2 - 3 person serving of pasta. We're definitely sauce people in this house and I'd rather have too much sauce on my pasta that not enough!

Recipe

• 2 onions sliced

• 2 large carrots thinly sliced (approx. 220g)

• 3 cloves garlic

• 2 celery sticks, sliced

• 1 kg passata

• 1 tbsp tomato puree

• 1 tsp oregano

• 1 tsp thyme

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsbp oil

• Water

Directions

1. Add the oil to a large pot and put to a low heat. Add the onions and stir well until they are coated in the oil. Cook on low for 10 - 15 mins until you can see they are nice and soft.

2. While the onions cook, chop the carrots and celery. When the onions are ready add the carrots and celery to the pot and cook for a further 5 minutes.

3. Squash the garlic, you don't need to chop it just a squash to open it up and add to the pot.

4. Add the passata then fill your empty jar / cartons about a 1/4 full with cold water swirl it around to get all the bits of tomato off the side and pour into the pot.

5. Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a gentle simmer.

6. Cover and leave to cook on a low heat for 45mins, or until the carrots are cooked through.

7. Once ready let the sauce cool and blend. If you are using a hand blender you can do this in the pot it's cooked in. If you are using a stationary blender or food processer you may need to do it in batches so that you don't overfill the blender.