BIG bag of tomatoes... anyone know how to make a pasta sauce??

wobblywizard

Wondering if anyone can help me...

I've just bought a 1kg bag of tomatos from Asda for 20p thinking I'd be able to make a nice pasta sauce... I've googled slow cooker pasta sauce recipes but they all involve canned tomatoes. I'd like to make something entirely from scratch, preferably in the slow cooker, so how do I go about preparing them? Sorry I'm a bit of a newbie at these kinds of things, I was brought up in a house of microwave meals, but I do try now I have my own place

Any help would be apreciated!
Thanks

valentina

I haven't got a slow cooker but I usually roast the tomatoes in the oven with some olive oil, salt & pepper until they break up, then either eat them straight away or freeze them (or sieve and freeze them if you don't like pips)

BitterAndTwisted

Blanch and peel the tomatoes and discard the seeds, then chop. Chop finely and sweat off a medium-sized onion and some celery if there's any to hand plus a clove or two of garlic. Add the tomatoes, add chopped or dried herbs (I prefer basil and oregano), a half-teaspoon of sugar and simmer gently until nice and thick. If you like you can chuck in some veggies if you have any like chopped peppers or mushrooms in with the tomatoes before simmering. That's it

SaverShell

Hi

I usually just chop the tomatoes up and then throw them in a pan with whatever veg I happen to have in - onions, mushrooms, carrots - anything that takes your fancy really. I then add some herbs and just simmer it until the tomatoes have broken down and all the veg is soft. I usually put bit of vegetable or chicken stock in too. I guess you could always blend it up if you wanted a smooth sauce.

I also found a recipe for a great tomato soup which I've lived on this week while I've been laid up with flu

700g tomatoes
1 onion
1 litre tomato juice (buy supermarket own brand for about 30p a litre)
150ml stock (i used chicken but you could use any kind)
Basil
Salt and Pepper

Chop the onion and tomatoes and cook them together in the pan until the onions are soft and the tomatoes have broken down, season and add the basil and the stock.
Put the whole lot in a blender along with the tomato juice and whizz it up. Reheat portions as necessary.

I made this and I got 6 meals worth out of it and they were fairly good sized portions. I guess you could make this and use it as either a pasta sauce or a soup as it was quite thick.

Pretani

This recipe worked a treat for me, best I've ever made. I roasted mine, but i suppose you could slow cook it also. The amounts are in proportion to each other.

tomatoes chopped, add some basil and thyme, splash of wochester sauce and beef stock.

chop a few sticks of celery, carrot and onion and a few cloves of garlic.

add salt and pepper.

esmf73

In case you're not sure how to peel tomatoes - score the skin with a knife and place in boiling water for a minute. The skin will start to peel back from the flesh.

Ladyhawk

I just fry some onions (and garlic if you like it), throw in some quartered tomatoes, as salt, pepper and herbs, cover and leave to simmer for 45min-an hour until the right consistancy...

[Deleted User]

I blanched the toms in hot water to get the skins off then chopped them up small.
First a handfull of chopped onion and a couple of spoons ful of Lazy Garlic(i love that stuff) a drop of olive oil in a pan and just sweat them slowly for about five minutes till the onion starts to go golden throw the toms on the top with some mixed herbs and a couple of finely sliced, celery if you have some and maybe some finely chopped mushrooms & peppers a couple of good squirts of Tomato purree, put the lid on and cook gently for about 20 minutes then take the lid off and let it cook a wee bit longer just to thicken it up a bit .when cool if not using it straight away then put in a container and freeze until your ready to use it
Tases gorgeous and a darn sight cheaper than the pasta sauces ready made in a bottle

Emm-in-a-pickle

I have a VERY Fussy grand daughter who loves my HM spag.bol sauce, and it`s never the same twice!
Basics - tomatoes, rough chopped not peeled etc., olive oil, oregano, garlic.
Additional - (leftovers, `use-ups`, any or all acceptable) carrot, pepper(any colour), leek or onion, any bits of leftover cabbage, cauli, courgette, celery, mushroom, parsley. As long as there`s tomato, olive oil, oregano & garlic, I can just chuck any good veggies in and then blitz it into a nourishing sauce that DGD will love.

ali1972

I make a sauce with just tomatoes, olive oil, basil and garlic (and optional dash of red wine or stock).

I put the tomatoes in a bowl of just boiled water for 1 minute, then drain and pull the skins off (a la Delia Smith) then roughly chop. I heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a thick bottomed pan (such as a casserole pan). I then throw in a handful of chopped fresh basil and a couple of finely chopped cloves of garlic and fry for a minute or so. I then put the tomatoes into the pan, stir around a little, throw a dash of red wine (but you could use a little stock) reduce the heat and slowly reduce until the sauce is the consistency of jam. This can easily take well over an hour. Do it nice and slowly and you don't need to add any sugar as the sauce will taste sweet enough. You can always add a little at the end. If you taste the sauce too early on in the process it will still taste a little bitter so give it lots of time to slowly cook. I make this all the time to have with fresh pasta.