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Simple Tomato and Basil Sauce

A simple tomato sauce packed with flavour.
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes has to be chopped don't use pasata
  • 1 cooking onion
  • 1 bunch Fresh basil
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 large pinch salt and pepper
  • 150 grams pasta cooked as per packet instructions
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions
 

  • Cook your pasta as per packet instructions. And drain roughly, leaving a little bit of pasta water in the pan.
  • With a sharp knife finely dice the onion, and roughly chop the basil leaves.
  • Add the onion to a saucepan on a medium heat with the olive oil. Cook until the onions are JUST opaque.
  • Add the tomatoes and salt and pepper. Heat until the sauce JUST starts to bubble, them remove from the heat.
  • While off the heat, add the chopped basil and crush the garlic cloves into the sauce. Mix well
  • Put back on the heat until it JUST starts to bubble again, remove quickly and add to the cooked pasta.

Notes

You can add extras into this sauce, such as peppers, mushrooms or chillies. I like serving with parmesan too.
The idea is that the ingredients aren't cooked and boiled down so that they lose all their flavour.
After tasting this sauce, I far prefer it to the old sauces I used to make where I cooked the garlic and simmered the sauce for an age thinking it would add flavour, it's actually quite the opposite. Although I do have a few slow cooked pasta sauce recipes that are great for the oven, this is far better for the hob.