Just head down to your local supermarket and have a look at the stacks of premade sauce in a bottle. That will give you an idea of just how much of the stuff people buy day to day, yet none of those sauces can come close to the recipe below.

Here I am going to show you the most simple and easy to make version, yet this wonderfully delicious sauce will take your next pasta dish to new heights of tastiness.

Although the ingredients are simple and the method straight forward the one thing we are going to give this recipe is a little time. This is a recipe to enjoy making, savouring each step knowing that the finished product is well, well worth it.

OK let’s do it!

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 10 x TBSP Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 x 400g Can of Plum Tomatoes in Juice
• 1 x Medium Onion
• 4 x Cloves of Garlic
• 1 x Handful of Fresh Basil
• 1 x TSP Dried Basil
• ½ x TSP Sea Salt
• ½ x TSP Ground Black Pepper

Optional

• 1 x TSP Dried Oregano
• 1 x Handful of Fresh Oregano
• 1 x Small Pinch of Sugar

Method

Finely dice the onion. Add the olive oil and onion to a large thick bottomed saucepan and put on a low heat. We don’t want a sizzle here as we want the onions to gently soften and let out their wonderful sweetness.

Stir occasionally until the onions are translucent about 5-7 minutes. The best way to check them is to simply try a piece. It should be so soft it dissolves in the mouth.

Keeping the onions on the heat add your very thinly sliced garlic to the pan or crush the cloves straight in.

Stir in for a minute or two, the strong smell of garlic will soften and become a sweet, savoury fragrance.

If using whole plum tomatoes put them in a bowl and crush them up by hand before adding them to the pan, not only does it feel sooo satisfying, the broken up tomatoes will make life easier during the next stage. Of course if you are using chopped tomatoes just pour them straight in!

Add your dried herbs immediately. As for the fresh basil take off the leaves and roll them up together so you get a bunch about the thickness of your thumb, then finely slice them then add them to your sauce.

Add the salt and pepper and stir everything together well.

Leave the saucepan with the lid off and keep the pan on a low heat so the sauce is just simmering. We want the sauce to reduce by at least one third of its volume.

This can take around 30 minutes, so make sure you stir occasionally and as you do gently break up those larger pieces of tomato with the back of your spoon. We don’t want a puree, but then we don’t want a chunky sauce either.

Once reduced you should have a deep red, pourable rich sauce.

Now is the time to taste

Some canned tomatoes can be a little tart, if you find your sauce is suffering from this then add the small pinch of sugar stir in well and taste again.

Season with salt and pepper to taste should you require.

Now serve with your favourite pasta or turn it into Bolognese, lasagne, etc.

Remember to tell me how this sauce worked out for you in the comments below!

Michael Robinson

Author information

The Food Curator

The Food Curator (AKA Michael Robinson) is an aficionado of all things food and bon viveur based in London. A passion for cooking and dining has driven him to put fingers to keyboard to bring you his thoughts on the world of food. When not writing, eating or cooking he has a love of American muscle cars. Pop on over to my Facebook page and let's start a Facebook food revolution together: http://tinyurl.com/thefoodcurator

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