Can you really OS on pasta sauce?

Toxic_Lemon

There was a tinned tomato taste test on Food Live (UK TV Food channel) recently where they blind tested a few brands including a value brand. Unsurprisingly, the value tin came out bottom and all agreed they had almost no flavour and were not worth buying.

I'm really funny about tomatoes. I love them dearly and get mine from a specialist tomato grower as the flavour is to die for. (Grow my own in the summer). I cannot eat 'normal tomatoes' as they make me heave they are so watery and tasteless. But then, that's just my palette. We're all different.

basil1

Toxic_Lemon wrote:

I think you have a point, but I also think OS means different things to different people. Personally I would NEVER buy any food labelled as 'value', not even for my dog. I don't believe OS means value, I think it means back to basics, and that isn't always the cheapest. The quality of my food is of the utmost importance to me, as is my health, so I have always made everything from scratch - but it's all excellent quality and the tastiest, IMO.

Others will disagree - but that's MY interpretation and my standards.

Toxic lemon I couldnt agree with you more. Yes Im all for saving money but where food is concerned Im more into making gorgeous food cheaply. I never buy anything with value on it (cheap beans yuk) but I make lovely food with simple ingredients so Im a single parent working part time and we eat really well because I prioritise. We get an organic box and get organic butter, cheese and milk and Im canny with everything else I buy. I make my own bread, biscuits, ice cream etc. because I want good food I can afford. Pasta sauce in a jar is usually full of salt and sugar and tastes of vinegar. The most delicious pasta sauce I make is with roasted tinned tomatoes. Its v quick and easy and healthy and delicious. Probably works out about 60p or a lot less if you get BOGOF on nice tins of toms. I live on very little but food is a joy of life. I wont scrimp on it. Its just an opinion but I was so pleased to see that somebody else shared it.

Toxic_Lemon

Just to add.... whilst preservatives may be a problem to many people, pesticides and toxins used while GROWING food should be as much, if not MORE, of a concern when considering your health.

Basil1 - High Five!!!

astonsmummy

studentphil wrote:

The supermarket sells a jar of pasta sauce for 50p. Even if you buy two tins of toms you can not do it for that price and a tin of toms does not have as much favour as a jar.

Have you ever tasted a 50p jar of sauce? my guess is its probably nasty, tomatoes are very cheap i bought a jar of mixed herbs a while ago and they are still going strong, i think it was about 40p for the herbs, thats all i use, maybe some passata, garlic and onions (and a squidge of tommy sauce)

tomstickland

I make my own bolognaise from scratch and the key is to boil down the tomatoes. At first I was a bit scared that it wouldn't tase of anything if I made it myself, but it does as long as you simmer it for an hour or so.
I'd never bother with sauce in a jar again.

Toxic_Lemon

Yep, boiling down (reducing) the tomatoes so that you intensify the tomato flavour is the key to any good tomato-based sauce. Don't just heat through. Patience will reap the rewards!

shelagh

I agree totally with Toxic Lemon and Basil 1 the food is so important, much more so than money
shelagh

lightisfading

value sauce is disgusting IMHO. onion, garlic, herbs and tinned toms (even cheap ones) simmered down slowly tastes far better to me than that. (though a bit of tomato puree does help make it a bit richer

Gingham_Ribbon

I use the cheap morrisons passata with onions, garlic and herbs. I used to use the organic but we're tightening our belts again and to be honest, the value stuff is fine. It doesn't take as much cooking as it doesn't need to reduce as much. A little cream or olive oil stirred in, some chopped olives, fry some fresh veg in balsamic vinegar or add it to pizza and bob's yer uncle.

I wouldn't eat any other jar of pasta sauce other than pesto for quickness. It's only cheaper to make yourself if you grow your own herbs but it's worth it for the taste.

I'm eating all manner of rubbish at the moment because of pregnancy sickness, but I still don't like jars of pasta sauce. (Though I can eat tablet with pickled onions with no problem!)

Toxic_Lemon

Gingham_Ribbon wrote:

(Though I can eat tablet with pickled onions with no problem!)

:eek: :eek: Is that legal? :eek: