A delicious and simple tomato sauce recipe is all you need for a quick and easy meal, and with just a few ingredients, you can ditch the ready-made sauces
A homemade tomato sauce should be silky and rich, perfectly coating the pasta without overwhelming the other flavours in the dish.
Roberta d’Elia, Head Chef at Pasta Evangelists, delivers just that with this recipe, which is a breeze to prepare in just 15 minutes and serves six.
Chef Roberta’s top three tips revolve around ripeness, roasting, and freshness, each one boosting the natural sweetness and depth of the fruit. “Tomatoes are best fit for cooking when they are slightly over-ripe,” she suggested, and slow-roasting them amplifies their flavour even more, reports the Express.
Most importantly, she cautioned against storing your tomatoes in the fridge, emphasising: “For a richer taste, buy (or grow! ) your tomatoes fresh and cook them as soon as you have them.”
Slow-roasted tomato sauce recipe
Ingredients
- 1kg vine-ripened tomatoes, removed from vines and halved
- Four cloves garlic, crushed
- Two tsp demerara sugar
- Two 2tbsp tomato pureĢe
- Two tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Handful fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C. Arrange the halved tomatoes cut-side up in a single, even layer on a large roasting tray.
Nestle the crushed garlic cloves among the tomatoes, pressing them into the flesh where possible so they infuse the fruit as they cook. Lightly sprinkle the sugar across the top, along with a generous pinch of salt and a good grind of black pepper.
Spread the tomato pureĢe across the tray using a spoon to ensure an even layer, then finish by drizzling the surface with a few glugs of olive oil.
Pop the tray in the oven and roast for roughly one hour, or until the tomatoes are meltingly soft and slightly charred at the edges. Start checking at the forty-minute mark to avoid burning.
Sausages are much tastier if you season them with 1 unusual herb
Potatoes will be ‘golden and crispier’ by adding 1 ingredient that you probably already have
Once done, remove the tray from the oven, sprinkle over the chopped basil, and use a fork to gently mash the tomatoes, creating a rich, chunky sauce.
This is best served ladled over freshly cooked pasta – the chef recommends orecchiette for a true Puglian touch – and topped with a fine grating of Parmigiano Reggiano.
