Quick & Easy Tomato Sauce Recipe
So this recipe is purely a quick tomato sauce. Whatever you have lying around in the cupboards and fridge. We always seem to have tomatoes and spinach in the fridge that we forget about and seem to more often than not, get chucked out. This is a no go in our eyes, food waste is not fun. That just makes this recipe an added bonus! It’s great to use when you have vegetables in the fridge that are beginning to look a bit suspect, try throwing in some courgette or kale if those are what you’ve got in your fridge.
Although a tomato sauce may appear to be lacking in any nutritional value, the use of fresh tomatoes actually provides a great source of lycopene once we cook it down. Read our informative tomato beauty and nutrition guide to learn more on how a simple tomato sauce can provide many benefits to our body.
Cupboard Staple Tomato Sauce
As we reiterate that this is a quick “I have no food in the house” meal, that is why dried herbs are listed in the recipe. Fresh herbs are not something we always have handy in the fridge and alas we’re not the greatest at growing herbs indoors either. So here we are, with dried herbs and it tastes just as darn good. Obviously if you do have fresh herbs, chuck a whole bunch of those in place of the dried herbs!
Ways to use our tomato sauce
We’ve served this tomato sauce with spelt rigatoni pasta. Some other options include;
- Grilled fish,
- Grilled chicken with vegetables
Using spelt pasta isn’t the be all and end all, you are free to use normal pasta or whatever you have lying around. We just wanted some gluten free, fibre kick goodness. As a healthy lifestyle, where we don’t want to give up or restrict ourselves from any dishes or ingredients, we try to opt for substitutes that provide a bit more nutrients to our body – hence the spelt. Plus this is actually an alternative where taste does not suffer!
Tips
So as stated, this recipe was originally made to be paired with pasta. It just so happens it can work just as well within other recipes. Anyway, we recommend the following when making this sauce with pasta in mind:
- Season your pasta water with salt heavily
- Add a couple spoonfuls of the pasta water into the sauce whilst cooking out the tomatoes
- Chuck in your pasta into the saucepan with the tomato sauce and let cook together for a couple of minutes
- Once you’re happy take off the heat and add a few handfuls of spinach to wilt in
- Top with an abundance of cheese! Crack some pepper and enjoyyyy!
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 15 minutes |
| Servings |
people
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- 200-300 g tomatoes can use any you have lying about, vine tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, heritage etc
- 1 white onion
- 5-6 cloves garlic
- 1 cm ginger
- 3 tbsp EVOO
- 1 chilli optional
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 1-2 tsp mixed herbs
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- salt
- pepper
- 1 lemon juice of
Ingredients
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- Prep your ingredients for your sauce; dice up your onion, peel your garlic (and chop or mince) and ginger. Chop up your tomatoes and chillies.
- Heat your oil in a pan over medium heat. Add in your diced onions and gently cook until you can start to see them turn slightly translucent.
- Add in your chopped garlic and grate in your ginger and heat for a further 2-3 minutes.
- Chuck in your tomatoes and chillies if using. Stir to combine the onions and tomatoes and allow to heat until the tomatoes break down.
- After about 5 minutes or so, start to add in your seasonings. Season with salt and pepper, add in your dried herbs bit by bit until you reach a taste to your liking.
- Squeeze lemon juice and stir. Allow to cook for a further five minutes.
- Your sauce is done! If serving with pasta, we like to chuck in some fresh spinach and top with cheese! Check out Tips for more information!
