Easy Tomato Pasta Sauce

An easy Italian tomato pasta sauce.

Buy or find
Olive oil, 2 tbs (light olive oil is best for this recipe)
Diced tomatoes, 400g can (Annalisa brand is a favourite)
Brown onion, 1 small, peeled and finely diced (very finely chopped) *
Garlic, 1 clove, peeled and crushed
Tomato paste, 1 tbsp
Sugar, 1/2 - 1 tsp
Salt, a pinch
Fresh basil leaves, 8-10, washed and finely sliced **

Do
Heat oil in a saucepan over medium heat until it shimmers (about 2-3 minutes).

Add the onion and a pinch of salt, stirring regularly until it softens and browns (about 5-7 minutes)

Add the garlic and stir for 10 seconds.

Add the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar, 125ml (1/2 cup) water and salt. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes.

Gently mash the sauce with a potato masher until it is slightly less chunky. (Do not use a blender or food processor to do this. If you do you will crush the seeds which will produce a metallic taste and the sauce will change from red to orange).

Add the basil and briefly stir to combine.

Cover and leave for 15 minutes or as long as you can. The longer the sauce sits, the better it tastes.

Serve with your favourite pasta, freshly grated parmesan cheese and a large bowl of salad. Our favourite pasta for this sauce is penne. Pasta for a sauce like this is best cooked in a large pot of water to which 1 tbs of rock salt is added.

* Dicing the onion is very important. You can’t have large pieces of onion if you want this to work. There are many videos online (Gordon Ramsay is the best) that show you how to do this properly. You can do it your own way as long as you end up with finely chopped or diced onion. You can always use the food processor but you must ensure that you don’t end up with mush, so keep it short.

** To slice the basil properly for this recipe, wash the leaves and place them in a stack on a chopping board. Slice the stack of basil leaves as finely as you can. Slicing is the action, not chopping.