The boys in my family are meat eaters, yet the girls (including me) eat very little meat. So if I am going to expect the whole family to sit together and eat a dish I make … without meat … it has to have lots of flavour to satisfy their taste buds.
So when thinking of what to offer on a “meatless day”, I served this sauce with their favourite pasta and waited to see the response … and to my delight they loved it!
What pleases me the most is that with so few ingredients this sauce really packs a punch … it is deliciously rich and can be served:
- Folded through cooked pasta of choice, and served drizzled with some chopped parsley, basil and grated Parmesan;
- Used as the tomato sauce component when making vegetarian lasagne;
- Spread across pizza bases before adding toppings of choice;
- As a richly flavoured vegetarian soup, just add a tin of drained chick peas or lentils for added protein, and serve alongside a thick slice of toasted sourdough bread;
- As a “tuna bake” by folding sauce through cooked pasta of choice (use 500g packet uncooked), add a 420g tin of drained flaked tuna, place into a baking dish, top with béchamel sauce if you have the time, or grated cheese if you don’t, and bake until the top is nice and golden; or
- With a tray of baked veggies for people to drizzle over as much sauce as they like, and top with crumbled feta cheese if desired.
I am out of step with those cooks/chefs who say that you should only use wine for cooking that is good enough to drink. I have used white wine in this dish, and I don’t drink white wine. And I would never buy a bottle of wine to use for cooking, although I do use leftovers in bottles when we have been entertaining (there are never any “leftovers” when we are enjoying a bottle of red ourselves!!!!!). So in my pantry I keep a 2 litre cask of dry white wine (Yalumba Classic Dry) to use for cooking. This sauce needs a dry white so please don’t use a sweet wine as the balance of flavour will be way too sweet … so any dry white will be fine.
I have listed the basil leaves as “optional” as their use will depend on how you plan to use the sauce … so if serving simply with pasta then fold through the leaves, but if using with tuna for example, then I wouldn’t include them so use your judgement and go with what you consider right for you.
- 1 brown onion, peeled and cut into quarters
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled
- ½ red chilli, optional
- 40g olive oil
- 150g dry white wine
- 2 x 400g tins peeled tomatoes
- 100g tomato paste
- 1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp sea salt flakes, or 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 tsp cracked black pepper
- 60g dark muscovado sugar, or dark brown sugar
- Basil leaves, left whole, optional (use as much as you like)
- Place onion, garlic, chilli and olive oil into TM bowl and chop 5 seconds / speed 5
- Scrape around bowl, then sauté 5 minutes / Veroma / speed 1 / MC off
- Add rest of ingredients, except basil leaves if using, and cook 20 minutes / 100 / speed 1 / MC on
- Taste and add a little more salt if needed and cook 5 minutes / 100 / speed 1 / MC on
- Place basil leaves, if using, into the base of a Thermoserver, pour over sauce, stir through and allow to sit for 5 minutes
- If you are not using basil leaves, serve sauce as desired
- Keeps well in the fridge for up to a week, or can be frozen for future use
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