Cooking with Jonny69: Real pasta sauce ***WORLD EXCLUSIVE*** with pics

Man of Honour
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Don't get your hopes up too high about these pics just yet. Firstly I'm no photographer and secondly they are from my camera phone so they are pretty shonky. Squint a bit and they should look fine...

Today folks we're going to cook a real tomato pasta sauce just like they do back home. It's so so simple to make, REALLY cheap and ultra versatile. This forms the base for pretty much any tomato pasta sauce from seafood, bolognese and also pizza topping. There are just two ingredients:

Tinned tomatoes x2
Garlic x4

This will make about 4 portions, make plenty and stick it in the freezer.

Chop up about 4-5 cloves of garlic really fine and get them frying really lightly in some olive oil. The garlic is the key here and you need plenty:

pasta1.jpg


In the meantime open two tins of tomatoes (note my miniature saucepan lid in the background):

pasta2.jpg


Now I find the cheaper the tomatoes the better because they have plenty of tomato juice in them and they seem to cook down more satisfactorily and make a smoother sauce. With the more expensive ones I end up adding water so they can bubble down without burning. You can also use fresh tomatoes but you will need to remove the skins and take the cores out, plus it works out quite expensive with the price of fresh tommys in this country. After the garlic starts to go opaque chuck in the toms:

pasta3.jpg


Season with salt and pepper. Now a lot of people don't know this, table salt is about 50% anti-caking agent which is a flavourless sodium-based substance to make it sit in those little balls and run out your salt shaker. So only half of what you put in your food is actual salt and you use twice as much as you need to make it just as salty. Because the anti-caking agent is sodium based your sodium intake is rammed up really high by using table salt. If you use rock salt it is pure salt so you don't need anywhere near as much. Use about this much if your hands are the same size as mine:

pasta4.jpg
 
Now out with the pepper grinder and get plenty of pepper in there:

pasta5.jpg


My pepper grinder is a hollow baseball bat and I have to stand right in the middle of the kitchen to be able to get it in the pan. Grind in about this much:

pasta6.jpg


Give it a stir and bring it to the boil. Now pop on a lid, drop the flame right down and let it simmer for at least 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every now and then. This is a good time to pop a bottle of red wine and go sit down and relax. The sauce should reduce by about 1/3 and the colour will deepen, the flavour will really change as the sugars in the tomatoes cook out and it should become quite smooth so there's no need to blitz it. Now it's pretty much ready to serve. Cook some pasta and ladle it on top in a big bowl!

I did two variations, the veggie option:

pasta8.jpg


Pasta in the middle, nice bitter rocket round the edge, sauce on top, broke up some hard strong cheese and shaved some parmesan using a potato peeler. This is what I did for me for the non-veggie option:

pasta9.jpg


Same as the veggie option except I used smoked salmon trimmings (cheap) sprinkled over the top instead of the cheese.

You'll be wanting to know how to do bolognese. I fry off a pack of mince in a frying pan and drop it in once I've got the tomato sauce going and boil it down for the same time and it's as simple as that, nothing else. Seafood works perfectly, pop it in a few minutes before the end and you'll get a lovely seaside taste in the tomato. Also as I mentioned it makes a perfect pizza topping.

And enjoy.

Edit: and don't forget this is a pasta sauce base that you can add anything else you like to ;)
 
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Andelusion said:
My favourite pasta sauce has to be Carbonara though, which I'm doing tonight, have you done that before?
Yup but I tend to cheat on that and don't do the whole egg yolk thing. A real carbonara is like bacon or italian ham fried off, add the pasta to that, turn off the heat and stir in raw beaten egg yolk. The heat of the pan thickens it up and you tip it into a bowl quickly and serve topped with parmesan. Probably. I make a quick white sauce with butter, spoonful of flour and milk and add grated cheddar and cooked chopped bacon. Tastes just as good :D

Edit:

playworker said:
Good call - +1 votes for "Cooking with Jonny69: Spaghetti Carbonara"

Thankyouplease :)
Which one do you want, real or fake? :D
 
divosuk said:
Nice to see a different type of post to the usual dross.
Dross? Oi :p

divosuk said:
But its a good job you aren't a nutritionist, cause most table salts in the UK are pure enough at between 85 - 98% Sodium Chloride. The Rock salt thing is a bit of a con.
But it's much saltier and I use a lot less.

robjf said:
Jonny69 you've done OcUK proud again! Ive made 2 of your recipes at uni and have to say, they are a damn sight more appealing than having to go through a recipe book!

Keep it up, i can see you being onto a big thing here!
My pleasure, thanks for trying them :)
 
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The thing is though a lot of people don't know how to cook this sort of stuff. It's basics but anyone can do it and there's no b.s. or snobbery involved. And you get to make a cannon at the end.

dannyjo22 said:
Kinda like a up market Bob Geldoff ;)
Are you suggesting I grow a purple beard?

Edit: no that'll be that scottish comic bloke :p :D
 
robjf said:
Jonny69 - Would be great if you could get these on your site (seeing as search is out of action atm). Ive got it bookmarked for that reason entirely!!

:D
I put it in the bottom of my sig, should take you straight there ;)

Hugogo said:
I was expecting something...more. That is the most obvious pasta sauce recipe ever. Not only that but you used properly budget ingredients. I am a a student and i don't cook with value tomatoes.

Onions, Puree Herbs such as fresh basil and coriander, sundried tomatoes, olives etc etc. So much more to do other than your bog standard one.

Jonny69 said:
Edit: and don't forget this is a pasta sauce base that you can add anything else you like to ;)
I take it they don't teach you to read at university any more then :D
 
Ok I promise it'll be a bit more challenging next time :D

But it will still be damn tasty and not cost much ;)

I'm thinking chicken and sweetcorn soup like you get in the Chinese takeaway? You need a chicken carcass for that so ideal for a Monday/Tuesday after the Sunday roast...

Or what about a hearty sausage and bean casserole?

I'm going to write something about picking kitchen knives and how to keep them sharp as well.
 
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