Tomato Sauce

Tomato sauce is probably the most widely used sauce in italian cooking. It can flavour pasta and gnocchi, be used on pizza, dress vegetables or simply cooked meat and fish or have stale bread added to it to make the most delicious Pappa Pomodoro (Tuscan bread soup).

olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed or fine chopped

2 tins of Italian plum tomatoes

handful basil, finely chopped

salt and pepper

Optional - pinch of dried chilli

Heat a drizzle of olive oil in a pan and cook the garlic gently without colouring, adding the dried chilli if using. Add the tomatoes and basil and simmer gently for 20 minutes, breaking down the tomatoes with a wooden spoon as it cooks, till you have a quite smooth sauce.

Remove from heat and use straightaway, or leave to cool and keep in the fridge for up to a week or freeze.