Homemade Pasta Sauce help..

[spokewench]

I can't see why you'd use cans either; real food tastes so much better. I'm doing another batch of Oven Roasted tomato sauce:

2kg ripe tomatoes (more if I have them)
2 big onions, roughly chopped (I use Spanish)
12 garlic cloves
dash olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic
1 tbsp brown sugar
salt and fresh pepper

Halve/quarter tomatoes and toss with garlic, onions and olive oil in a baking dish. Bake for an hour 200C or until tomatoes are soft and slightly scorched and onions are cooked. Cool so you can peel off and discard tomato skins (or not) and squeeze the cooked garlic over the tomatoes. Add the balsamic, sugar, salt and pepper and stir (or whiz to a mush if you prefer). Reheat and serve. Freeze whatever you don't use in meal-sized batches.

Can't get good fresh tomatoes at a decent price in the winter; that is why I use canned.

[spokewench]

A few of you say that sugar is the key; I disagree, I think chopped up carrots in the key - they add the sweet/sugar to the sauce for me.

[withm]

I always grate the carrots for spag sauce

[nolemom]

Making homemade marinara as I type for the Shrimp Diabolo we are having tonight. It has to have the holy trinity - onion, celery and carrots.

[Susan]

My mum often made vegetarian pasta sauce for us with celery, carrots and parsley root roasted in leek + tomato sauce. It really tastes great!

[malkin]

And if a bit of sauce gets a bit stuck on the bottom of the pan, stir it back in. That's my secret. A little bit of caramelized stuff works the same as a little sugar.

[crazycanuck]

Yum Yum...! I hit the jackpot last week when making some pasta sauce but now need some more info.

I chopped up some tomatoes, added a few herbs n spices, 300ml water & then let it simmer on the stove...I then added some tomato paste & chicken...ooo..mmmm....

So, my question is: How do i thicken the sauce without the tomato paste? Cornstarch???

Ta!
C

[alpinerabbit]

Fry some finely chopped celery (root, celeriac) along with the onions and garlic - until all forms a light-brown layer on the bottom of the pan. deglaze with red wine or stock. Lovely round-off for the taste.
A half stock cube goes into mine at all times.
Sugar, too, &try a pinch of cinnamon!

[OakLeaf]

Also, if what you're going for is wanting to avoid tomato paste in cans, Bionaturae has it in jars - it's imported from Italy into the USA, so I expect you can get that brand in Australia as well.