Slow Cooked Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce Diaries – Part 1: Slow Cooked Tomato Sauce

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It’s at this time of year, when everyone is telling us to eat healthily and get back to the gym, that I think we should really be slowing down, learning to discover ourselves and what makes our minds healthy.  It’s cold and miserable in the northern hemisphere and that’s no time to eat salads.  It’s time for slow, batch cooking and there’s no better place to start than with a simple tomato sauce.

So here’s the start of my Tomato Sauce Diaries.  I’m kicking off by showing you how to make a basic but divine slow-cooked tomato sauce and then I’m going to give you three wonderful recipes that use it.

Ingredients:

• olive oil and butter
• 1/2 medium onion – finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic – finely grated
• a teaspoon chopped fresh oregano (you can also use fresh rosemary and thyme)
• one teaspoon dried oregano
• roughly 1 kg fresh (or frozen) tomatoes (or 2 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes) – I like to use a mix
• 1/2 pint of veg stock
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• one teaspoon tomato puree
• 100ml of white wine
• salt and pepper
• a pinch of sugar

make the tomato sauce

Add a drizzle of olive oil and a small knob of butter to a large pan on a medium heat. Throw in the onions and sauté until they begin to soften.  (Roughly 4 minutes.) A medium heat is good here as you don’t want them to burn.  Stir in the garlic and half the fresh and all the dry oregano and let the onions cook gently until they begin to colour – another 4 mins should do it.

Pour in the tomatoes, then add the stock.  (if using tinned, re-fil the tins with stock and pour that in too.) Add the puree, balsamic vinegar, white wine, and sugar and season well. Let the whole thing come to a boil, then turn down the heat to the very lowest and let it gently plop away for at least two hours, stirring and scraping down the sides every 15 mins or so.  It should reduce by half, if not more. Stir in the remining fresh oregano at the end. Let is cool before you use it.

Tip: Keep the sauce in an air-tight container and it will keep for a week in the fridge.

#tomato #sauce #slowfood #newyear #comfortfood