Basic Tomato Sauce

Instructions

Soften the garlic, onion and bacon, if used, in the fat. Add the carrot, tomatoes and wine, breaking down canned tomatoes with a wooden spoon. Raise the heat and cook hard, uncovered, for 15 minutes, or more slowly for 45 minutes if the tomatoes are canned. Add seasonings and oregano after 10 minutes. The chopped basil should put in just before serving and a little more scattered over the top.

Author's Comments

A splendid sauce; one of the great freezer stand-bys if you have a glut of home-grown tomatoes of a good variety (e.g., marmande, which are firm all through and full of flavour; don't bother to use the Dutch and Guernsey tomatoes normally on sale in the United Kingdom -- a large can will give a much better taste).

This is a basic sauce to be used you when you don't want to open a can. Freeze the sauce in ice cube trays. When frozen into cubes, empty into a plastic bag and keep in freezer. One cube equals 1-1/2 tbsp.

If you're planning on freezing the sauce, you may prefer to leave out the garlic, as this can sometimes develop an odd flavour in the freezer.

Coppa is an Italian rolled salted pork belly, very like British streaky bacon.

If you don't have any wine, you can substitute 1/2 the quantity of marsala or brown sherry. Anything (or nothing) is better than the so-called cooking wine.

As a general principle, aim to finish the cooking with a chunky purée that is moist rather than watery. If you are freezing the sauce, you will find this the most useful texture. If you want to smooth out the sauce a little without spoiling its vigorous character, put it through the coarse plate of a moulinette. If you are using some of the purée to flavour other sauces (e.g. sauce aurore), put it through the medium plate. If you want to make cream of tomato soup, a blender is the thing.

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