the most basic: Tomato sauce

Homemade tomato sauce is leagues better that anything you can find in a jar at any grocey store, however fancy the packaging is or how expensive it is. Tomato sauce can be made either using fresh tomatoes or canned peeled plum tomaotes. For this variant i’ll share the simple recipe of using canned tomatoes. The quality of the canned tomatoes is important, but not necessarily the most expensive one. My favourite, and has been forever used is Cirio, an Italian brand that uses the best of San Marzano tomatoes. You can make the sauce fresh every time you wish to use it or in a big batch and store away into the freezer (where they will keep for a couple of months)

First of all, chop 2 cloves of garlic, dice a medium sized red onion, and fry them gently in olive oil over medium heat, adding a three-finger pinch of salt and stirring, until the onion is soft and translucent. Add two cans of the tomatoes, lightly season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Break and mush the tomatoes with a spoon (if you break it at the beginning, the sauce will taste bitter), correct the seasoning and add about 4 tbsp of butter. Add a few stalks of basil and serve immediately with your pasta.

Of course there are so many different ways for you to take this sauce forward…

For spicy arrabiatta, start the sauce off by adding a few whole fresh chillies. The chillies will provide some added heat to the sauce. After the sauce has simmered for 15-20 minutes, remove the chillies, chop them up and add back as much to continue bringing the heat into the sauce.

A real crowd-pleaser, and my favourite, is to end the sauce by adding in a nice swig of balsamic vinegar and a handful of grated Parmesan. This variation is fantastic with pasta such as fettuccine, tagliatelle or with grilled meats and fish.

To make a puttanesca, simmer the sauce gently with a handful of good pitted and squashed olives and anchovies. Also by flaking in a tin of tuna, you’d taken the sauce in another different direction.