This is for basic tomato sauce. A sauce that's perfect for pasta, and is ripe for countless variations depending on your tastes.
You need:
Tube tomato puree
Tin plum tomato
1 large onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic finely chopped
Glass red wine
Teaspoon sugar
dash lemon juice
Teaspoon white whine vinegar
Teaspoon mixed italian herbs
The key to this is taking your time at the start. Gently fry off the onions and garlic until they begin to go golden grown. It should take ten minutes. If you're meat eater, cubed pancetta, or even some smoked bacon at this point really adds depth to flavour.
Then add in the red wine, bring to the boil and add the tomato puree and the plum tomato. Stir it all in, bring back to the boil, add all the rest of the ingredients and leave to simmer, After ten minutes, squash the plum tomatoes into pulp with a spoon and stir back in. Simmer for another fifteen minutes and you're done. Trust me, it's perfect.
At the point you're putting in the final ingredients, you may want to add basil for a sweet/ bitter tang, or some cooked meat.
If you want to spice it up, put some chopped/dried chill is when you're frying off the onion - and indeed whatever veg you want. Mushrooms are great, but so is courgette, aubergine or whatever you fancy. It's quite simply a brilliant base for anything. Enjoy.
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