Tomato Sauce for Pasta & Pizza

This easy-to-make, cheap yet so delicious tomato sauce is great as a pasta sauce and for topping homemade pizzas. I’ve been using this recipe for as long as I can remember and I’m sharing it with you today. I think most homemade tomato sauce recipes are very similar and it’s probably a matter of adapting any recipe to what you like, which is what I’ve probably done over the years as well. We just love the taste of our homemade tomato sauce.

We use this tomato sauce mostly as a pasta sauce, and we grate a bit of cheese on top. It’s a simple, quick, delicious and cheap meal. You can sometimes add meatballs to the sauce. We also use this tomato sauce as a topping for homemade pizzas. While we often make our own pizza dough, I also sometimes buy the standard bag of bread dough, which costs R10.00 in any supermarket and yields 2 very large pizza bases. I also often use this sauce as an addition to beef stews and Bolognaise sauces, as a much tastier, and cheaper, alternative to tinned tomato and onion mixes.

If you’ve read my post Grocery Savings in June, you’ll know that I bought a whole box of 7kg ripe tomatoes for only R29.99 at Apple Tree Fresh Food Market. This was the perfect opportunity for me to make a sizeable batch of tomato sauce to freeze and for us to enjoy over the next couple of months. We will probably have 15-20 meals out of this batch, if not even more. The ingredients below cost about R45.00 (provided I buy the tomatoes in bulk at Apple Tree Fresh Food Market in Alberton) and this recipe will yield about 9-10 litres of tomato sauce for pasta and pizza. Just 1 litre of tomato sauce will cost you well over R20.00 in the shops.

Ingredients:

7kg ripe Tomatoes, chopped

1 tin chopped Tomatoes

2 sachets Tomato Paste

5 Onions, finely chopped

8 Cloves Garlic, minced

Fresh Parsley to taste, finely chopped

Fresh Basil to taste, finely chopped

Salt, Pepper and Oregano to taste

6 Tbsp. Oil

Method:

Heat the oil in a large stock pot, and sauté the onions and garlic for at least 10 minutes. Add all the tomatoes and the tomato paste. Stir well, bring to the boil and then simmer for about 1 hour. Add the parsley, basil, salt, pepper and oregano to taste and simmer for a few more minutes.

Take the pot off the stove plate and allow the tomato sauce to cool. If you’d like a smooth finish to your sauce, use a hand-held blender to puree the sauce. If you’d like a slightly chunkier sauce, puree only half of the tomato sauce and mix with the remainder. Enjoy!

If you decide to give this recipe a try, I’d love to hear how you’ve adapted it to suit your taste. I love fresh ideas! Please leave me a comment below.