Pasta sauces - need some help!

timmmers

I add Lidl tomato juice or passata if it's cheap enough.

I thought the pasta was to bulk it out ?

My ex used to roast thise beef tomatoes and some peppers with herbs when she made anything else in the oven, and then blitz them whole to make thick paste for spag bol ..or adding stock to make soup.

Roast toms with basil blitzed and made into soup is awesome

t

Penelope_Penguin

Ivrytwr3 wrote: »

Yuk!!!

Lloyd Grossman pasta sauces 89p at the minute!! - Lovely!

Ready made pasta sauce - yuk!!

rednose66 wrote: »

The point with adding the oats isnt to impart a Scots flavour to an Italian dish but rather to bulk it out when money is tight. I would have thought though that using brown lentils well well cooked would have done a better job of bulking out than oats but then again I love lentils!

If you use red lentils:

• they need no pre-cooking
• being red, they cook down to mush and are completely invisible

OP- why not just add more liquid to make more sauce

Penny. x

Justcoll

Stephen_Leak wrote: »

* Plum tomatoes can be used either whole or chopped. It is difficult to stick chopped tomatoes back together again if you need to use them whole.

I never used tins of chopped tomatoes just because I find them drier. I much prefer the consistency and flavour of plum tomatoes and get a much 'wetter' result. If you're having a bottle of red wine with the meal, add some of that to the sauce and let it simmer for a while. It really makes a difference.

paulwf

I'm one of those people that likes lots of sauce, I think it should properly coat the pasta all over and you shouldn't see a bowl of "naked" pasta with a just a few spoons of sauce in the middle.

I'm in agreement over using passata. With tinned toms it separates into tomato pieces and juice, so you have to reduce the sauce otherwise you'll get watery slop at the bottom of your pasta meal. When reduced this just leaves dry tomato pieces that won't coat the pasta.

With passata as it is a consistent thickness it will coat the pasta much more evenly and goes further as it doesn't need reducing down.

Sprinkling some fresh herbs (we use parsley grown in a pot so zero cost), pepper and grated cheese on top of the meal will really enhance the flavour and only cost a few pennies for the cheese.