This recipe will make approx 750ml tomato sauce
Ingredients
Olive oil
1 clove of garlic, cut in half
150g cherry tomatoes (or similar) chopped in half
½ tsp Himalayan pink salt
Ground pepper
1tbsp tomato paste
Red wine vinegar
Sugar/honey to taste
800g tinned, chopped tomatoes
Method
Place the chopped tomatoes and salt in a bowl and allow the salt to macerate the tomatoes for a good half an hour. Take a medium sized pan and gently heat enough olive oil to generously cover the bottom of the pan. Add the garlic, taking care not to cook the garlic at this stage. This will infuse the oil, adding a nice layer of flavour to the sauce. When the tomatoes are ready, remove the garlic with a slotted spoon and set it aside.
Increase the heat of the oil to a high heat and when you think the oil is very hot (but not smoking) add the chopped tomatoes and their liquor. Be careful doing this as the hot oil will often spit so stand back. Leave the tomatoes to cook on this high heat for about 3 minutes then lower the heat to a medium/low heat, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar, tomato paste and the garlic which you set aside earlier. Stir the sauce to cook the tomato paste and garlic out then add the tinned, chopped tomatoes. Add some pepper now, but not salt as you have already added salt to the fresh tomatoes earlier on. At this stage you can add some dry herbs if you like (you don’t have to) eg. mint and oregano for a Greek tomato sauce, basil for a Italian sauce or herbs de provence for a French provençal sauce.
Turn the heat up to a medium/low setting and let the tomato sauce simmer gently for about an hour. If the sauce looks like it’s drying out, cover the sauce with a lid or add some water to loosen it. Take the sauce off of the stove and blend it with a stick blender. You could leave it as it is if you prefer a more rustic sauce. Reduce the sauce to your desired consistency.
Finally add some sugar/honey and a dash or two of vinegar, tasting as you go along. Check the seasoning, finally adding any fresh herbs you might want to add and then slowly whisk in a good glug of olive oil to emulsify the sauce.
