Making a tomato sauce

For a recent recipe in that section of this site, you needed to have a home made tomato sauce at the ready.

Now some people may think that nobody should need to be told how to make such a sauce. That is should somehow come naturally to anyone who enters a kitchen.
But that is not the case. Many people do not have a clue as to how to make sauces or stocks.

I have had meals in Spain that have been transformed by a good quality mediterranean, tomato sauce.

You can make such a sauce using canned tomatoes, but it is much better with fresh ones. If you buy the latter from your local fresh food market or store, be sure to buy those that are a nice deep, red colour. They should be juciy with plenty of flavour.

To make about 600 mils of a tomato sauce use either 1 kilo of the aforementioned well flavoured, fresh tomatoes skinned. Failing that, use two 400 gram cans of plum tomatoes. Use around 20 grams of garlic cloves, finely chopped. Use 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. And be sure to have some salt and freshly ground black pepper to hand.

When you come to make the sauce, put the olive oil and garlic into a medium sized pan and when the garlic begins to sizzle, add the tomatoes and simmer for between 15 and 20 minutes. Break up the tomatoes with a wooden spoon while they are cooking until the sauce has reduced and thickened.

Season the sauce with a teaspoon of some salt and black pepper. Your sauce should now be ready to use. If using at a later date you can chill or freeze the sauce once it has cooled down.