It’s that time of the year again, with almost daily harvest of tomatoes and carrots from our patch. We’ve also got lots of courgettes, some of which have turned into marrow..
And I found a recipe where I could use up many of these tomatoes, carrots and courgettes and preserving them as a source for the wintertime.

Tomatoes & Veggie Pasta Sauce 3
My Tomato & Vegetable Pasta Sauce‘s adapted from Maisie’s Marvellous Meatballs – Tomato Sauce of “BBC GoodFood October 2013 UK Edition”.

Makes ±2L

  • 1 small onion, peeled and finely diced
  • 1 carrot, peeled and coarsely grated or julienned
  • 2 celery sticks, coarsely grated or julienned
  • 1 courgette, coarsely grated or julienned
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
  • 2 red peppers, remove top and bottom, peeled, cut into half, then strips
  • 1 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
  • 1 tbsp tomato puree or paste
  • pinch of golden castor sugar
  • 1.2kg fresh tomatoes or 3x400g tins chopped tomatoes
  • handful fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped

Preparation:

  1. If using fresh tomatoes like I did, remove top core, deskinned, remove seeds and roughly chop them up. Set aside.
  2. Heat oil in a large saucepan or pot on medium heat.
  3. Sterilise jam jars or pots – wash jars in soapy water and rinse thoroughly. Put all of them to drip-dry, upside down, on a rack in oven set to 140C, for at least 30 mins while making sauce.
  4. Add onion and garlic and cook for abt 8-10 mins till onion becomes translucent and not letting garlic burn.
  5. Then add celery, courgettes, carrots, peppers and tomato puree. Stir to mix, then stirring occasionally to cook for abt 5-8 mins. (Tomato puree has to be cooked down properly, otherwise it’ll leave a bitter taste to the ready dish.)
  6. Add in fresh or tinned chopped tomatoes, stirring to mix and let it cook while stirring once in a while till tomatoes break down, abt 15 mins.
  7. Season with salt and sugar, or to taste. Add in basil and remove from heat.
  8. Carefully remove sterilised jam jars or pots from the oven with oven gloves – try to avoid touching insides of jars with oven gloves, which might introduce unwelcome bacteria.
  9. Stir sauce, then ladle it carefully into sterilised jars. Use a jam funnel, if you have one, to avoid spilling too much sauce.
  10. Cover top surface of sauce in each jar or pot with waxed paper discs that have been cut to size – they should cover the entire surface of sauce. Press wax disc down to create a complete seal.
  11. Cover with a lid while still hot, label and store in a cool dark cupboard for up to a year.
  12. Once opened, put in fridge for upto a week or 2.

Tomatoes & Veggie Pasta Sauce 1

Would be great with any kinds of pasta or as pizza sauce. Add meat or fish, if wished.. 🙂



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