This sauce came about quite by chance … a combination of using up what I had left over and adding tomatoes, perfect for making sauce, along with a bunch of fresh basil from the farmer’s market.
Before going to the markets, I had roasted about 600 grams of tomatoes, a red pepper and an onion. So when I came home, I combined what I had roasted with what I had bought and made this sauce. It is delicious, hearty and ideal for pizza, pasta, gnocchi, lasagna etc…
This makes about 4 cups of tomato sauce.
Tomato Sauce With Basil
Ingredients
1.2 kilo of ripe, meaty, organic tomatoes
1 cup of homemade vegetable soup stock, (no fats or salts added)
1 large red pepper
3 brown onions, 2 onions peeled and chopped
6-8 fresh basil stems
leaves of one bunch of fresh basil, washed, spun and air dried
6 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
3 red chillies, stems removed and finely chopped (optional)
1 1/4 tsp Himalayan pink salt
Freshly ground pepper
Method
Preheat oven to 200c.
On a non stick ceramic tray lined with baking paper, place the red pepper (poked with a knife or fork), one onion with only one end trimmed and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Ten minutes in, add the tomatoes.
Wash and cut the remaining 800 grams of tomatoes in half or quarters (if they are very large) and add to a high speed blender. Add the basil leaves and blend. Pour in to a bowl and set aside.
Peel and chop the two remaining onions as well as the garlic and chillies. Heat a large dutch oven to a low heat and sauté the onions, basil stems and a pinch of salt, covered until they start to caramelise, for at least 20 minutes. Add a dash of filtered water if they start to stick to the bottom of the pan.
When the vegetables are finished roasting, remove the skins from the onions, red pepper and tomatoes and add the flesh along with any juice to the blender and run until you have a smooth sauce.
Add the garlic, chillies, salt, pepper and the roasted and blended tomatoes to the pot. Stir and bring to a boil covered. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer for about an hour to an hour and a half until you have a thickened sauce. Taste and adjust flavour if necessary. At this stage, the sauce should be sweet and flavourful.
Turn off the heat and let the sauce cool. Use right away and/or store in glass containers in the refrigerator. It is suitable to freeze as well.
