Fresh Tomato Sauce

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I had some salad tomatoes in my fridge which were looking particularly sad. Same goes with the basil. What better than to use these sad looking veg to muster something up! 

This is quite similar to my universal tomato sauce, if you only have Passata or chopped tomatoes to hand, check out that one! 

I made this tomato sauce with what I had in the kitchen. I put 4 salad tomatoes in the recipe as that's all I had. Saying that, I know they come in packs of 6 and 6 would also work! 

I used a stick blender in this recipe. If you're unable to blend, I recommend reducing the tomatoes for longer and dicing the onions. 

To serve to my little lady, I paired this sauce with some orzo and mozzarella! 


Ingredients 

1 onion 
4 salad tomatoes
1 tbsp tomato puree
2-3 garlic cloves 
Handful of spinach
Handful of fresh basil
Grinding of black pepper 


How to do

Half and slice the onion nice and thin, pop in a saucepan with a little oil on a low heat and sweat for around 5-10 minutes until it starts to soften. Stirring regularly to ensure they don't catch! 

Pop the tomatoes in a deep bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave for a few minutes. This is to help peel them more easily! 

Peel and dice the tomatoes, seeds included, pop to one side. 

Mince the garlic and add to the onions and stir. Cook for a further couple of minutes. 

Chuck in the chopped tomatoes and cook until they start to break down, around 5-7 mins.

Roughly chop the basil leaves and spinach. 

Add the tomato puree and stir. Add a couple of tablespoons of pasta water (just water will do just fine if making this in advance) to loosen. 

Remove from the heat, using a hand blender, blitz until smooth-ish. Chuck in the spinach, basil and a good grinding of black pepper, give it a good stir and let the heat from the sauce do the work.

Serve with pasta and toppings of your choice

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