Tomato Sauce

Once you make this you'll never buy the store-bought rubbish ever again. The only drawback with this recipe as a replacement for your regular condiment is the shelf-life. But that's because we're not using any preservatives! Perfect for pizza sauce, lasagna, cacciatore, any pasta dish or as a condiment.

Cook slowly. Refrigerate in a sealed container up to 5 days. Freeze for up to 3 months. v1.4

Ingredients

• 100ml extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 2 shallots, peeled, cut
• 1 large carrot, peeled, cut
• 1 large celery stick, cut
• 2 tblspns butter
• 1 tblspn crushed garlic
• 2 tspn crushed ginger
• 4 x 400g cans Italian/Roma tomatoes
• 100g tomato paste
• 2 tblspn white/red wine vinegar
• 1 tspn sea salt flakes
• 1 tspn freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tblspn honey
• 0.5 tspn cloves, ground
• 0.5 tspn allspice, ground
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch MSG
• 0.5 bunch fresh basil

Method

1. Put the EVOO, shallots, carrot and celery into a blender and puree into a cream make the soffritto.
2. Put the butter into a deep heavy-based frying pan over a low heat. Add the soffritto and cook very gently until completely softened, but not browned (15 mins). Add the garlic and ginger and cook for another 5 minutes.
3. Pour tomatoes into a large mixing bowl and crush with your hands and fingers or stick mixer on low. Don't use a blender--that thing mashes everything including the seeds, making it bitter and it ruins life. Stir in the tomatoes and tomato paste.
4. Add the vinegar, salt, pepper, honey, cloves, allspice and cayenne pepper, stirring well. Go on, lick that spoon--how good is that already?
5. Cook on low heat, covered stirring occasionally for about 1 hour until thickened. Add water if necessary. Turn off the heat and add basil, breaking it apart with your fingers over the pan. Allow to cool for an hour or more.
6. Package into ziplock bags (ladel, 100mg each) for freezing. Defrost as needed. Perfect for pizza.