I need to learn to cook !!!

Gigervamp

The herbs that go well in a tomato based pasta sauce are basil and oregano. Sometimes when making a pasta sauce, I'll use passatta and tinned tomatoes plus a good squirt (about 2 or 3 inches) of puree, but you can use either tinned or passatta on it's own. Passatta makes the sauce more like a jarred one in texture though.

LabLover

I can cook everything from scratch but my OH hates garlic and onions(he doesnt know I put them in eveything) but because his fave dish is lasagne and i worry that he will notice i always use 2 tins of toms,2 carrots, pork mince (dont eat red meat ) mushrooms, some garlic powder, mixed dried herbs then fling in a 35p sachet of asda bolognaise powder mix. It always makes a lovely base and that way he wont find any onions and go off in the sulk.I think asda sometimes do 4 sachets for a £1 , that way i can buy them in bulk and hide away in cupbaord so he doesnt rat me out lol

misskool

doelani wrote: »

Right for tmorrow I am going to TRY and make the lasagna myself ( Well the red bit anyway ) lol

I have mince, onions, red pepper. In cupboard I have dried mixed herbs , not sure if I need them. I ahve the white sauce, lasanga sheets so ok there.

I will call into shop later and buy anything else I need. Well once I figure out what I need lol Now need to trawl through recipes to see what else I need lol

OK I have seen mentioned

Passata
Chopped tomoatoes
Tomatoe puree

Do I only need one of the above?

Also need to get garlic......never cooked with garlic before in my life lol

chopped tomatoes in a tin are just peeled tomatoes chopped up in their juices
passata is whizzed up tomatoes and sieved (so there are no seeds) which makes for a thick smooth sauce
tomato puree is a concentrated version so has a very strong flavor.

If you are not sure about using garlic, go easy and get the lazy garlic (it's a jar of chopped garlic in vinegar, the vinegar evaporates when cooking so the taste is of garlic).

To get the skins of garlic, I just lay the clove on the side and bash it with a knife or the palm of my hand. The skin comes off and then chop finely. Adding a dash of coarse salt make it easier to chop. If people don't like to chew garlic, add a whole clove for taste and scoop it out when the sauce is cooked.

Have fun

doelani

LabLover wrote: »

I can cook everything from scratch but my OH hates garlic and onions(he doesnt know I put them in eveything) but because his fave dish is lasagne and i worry that he will notice i always use 2 tins of toms,2 carrots, pork mince (dont eat red meat ) mushrooms, some garlic powder, mixed dried herbs then fling in a 35p sachet of asda bolognaise powder mix. It always makes a lovely base and that way he wont find any onions and go off in the sulk.I think asda sometimes do 4 sachets for a £1 , that way i can buy them in bulk and hide away in cupbaord so he doesnt rat me out lol

My hubby hates garlic too but obviously it is in the sauces I use, I think I have some of the asda packet sauce mixes although never used them will have a look ,

thanks

Vixie_Pixie

to make our cheap spag bol we get a bag of Morrisons frozen beef mince (about £3 something for 1kg we can get about 3 different dinners out of one bag), Asda smart price bolognese sauce (about 38p) an onion some mushrooms and some Italian mixed dried herbs

just fry the onion in a little oil, add the mince and fry til brown. Drain off xs fat. Add mushrooms and italian seasoning (tsp at a time to taste) Add the SP sauce, fill the jar up with water, shake it and pour the liquid in, stir, leave it til it starts to bubble, turn the heat to its lowest setting and leave the sauce to bubble for about 25mins to half hour.

It goes all sticky and yum! You can also use the same base for lasagne. If you want it to be a bit chunky, we chop up some toms and bung them in as well

Vixie_Pixie

doelani wrote: »

My hubby hates garlic too but obviously it is in the sauces I use, I think I have some of the asda packet sauce mixes although never used them will have a look ,

thanks

asda packet mixes are great!! We always always use the chilli con carne mix!

julieq

Just reading this thread and some of the differences are interesting.

Passata v. tomato puree is an interesting one, I prefer passata as it's pretty much ready to go, where puree is strong and needs to be watered down a bit. Also I found when I used puree I'd end up with unused half tins or dried out tubes of it. I like to have a few packs of passata in the pantry, it's good for all sorts of things anyway, including pizza and so on. My mother used puree though, and her food was wonderful, so it's a personal preference entirely.

On garlic, I always put this in at the simmer stage, whatever I'm doing, rather than fry it with the onions, because I think you get more taste that way. But this is a controversial practice even in my own household. It's a pain to chop (the trick is to crush the entire clove with the skin on with a flat bladed large knife, then pull off the skin and top and tail before criss cross cutting), but essential to add a bit of kick to an italian style sauce, otherwise it can be quite insipid.

I'd never personally use stock cubes either. Nothing against them on principle but I find they tend to be quite salty and don't add much apart from that to richness of flavour. I'd always be more inclined to add a glug of wine, herbs and seasoning. One other thing I do a lot is to use either lardons (cubed smoked bacon) or cubed chorizo fried up to give a bit of saltiness, taste and texture. Both are available cheaply from Lidl.

Vixie_Pixie

ooh love the idea of chorizo!

silverchair

I recommend going to channel 4 website & using Gordon Ramsey's cookalong live recipes. They are really simple & have short demo video attatched to some of the recipes. Food is very tastey too. I made his lava cakes the other day & they were very simple to do,but really delicious.
Another idea would be to check out the adult ed colleges in your borough as they often offer saturday cooking classes or evening classes.

msb5262

Hello everyone - interesting thread.

A few random thoughts:

To the OP: your partner says that home-made doesn't taste the same as something made with a jar...correct. He is however an adult and will learn to like and probably prefer home-made in due course!

I was glad to see a glug of wine recommended...cider is also good in a bolognese sauce, if you have some to spare. Equally if you have some home-made stock sitting around doing nothing, that works really well.

I always add one or two bay leaves as the flavour and small are gorgeous.

If you don't have fresh basil around, put in 2 teaspoons of green pesto. Delicious!

I like to cook my bolognese for ages, either on the hob or in a low oven - sometimes for as long as 2 or 3 hours (especially if the oven is on already for something else). This gives the meat a very tender texture.

If the tomato flavour is a bit sharp, try 1/2 teaspoon of honey or sugar, or a squirt of tomato ketchup.

I made a bolognese the other day to an authentic Italian recipe and it said to add a couple of tablespoonfuls of double cream...I did, and it was divine. Everyone commented how good it was without knowing what I'd done. You might consider doing that as the straight tomato can be a bit evil!

HTH

MsB