Making Homemade Pasta Sauce, Using Kitchen Cupboard Essentials
If you've followed my blog for a while, you may remember a post I put up back in 2020 (which was very popular and was picked up by the media, which was nice), where I showed how I made yellow sticker ingredient, homemade tomato sauce for around 9p per portion, which helped us as a family to keep our food costs lower, as we do like pasta, and the tomato sauce worked well as a pasta companion! For that recipe, I used yellow sticker tomatoes, which kept the cost really low and was delicious, but we don't always get lucky and find a load of reduced tomatoes, and we can't trust the British weather enough to grow tomatoes ourselves, although sometimes I do get lucky!
As a result, I haven't made this pasta sauce for a while, mainly because I haven't been as lucky finding yellow sticker bargains for using as the ingredients, and the best homemade pasta sauce is made with fresh ingredients, in my opinion, and so knowing these bargains are harder to find (mainly due to more and more people snapping up the bargains as a way to help keep their food bills lower, during this cost of living crisis), I've looked at other ways I could knock up our easy homemade tomato sauce, without spending a fortune on the ingredients!
So, as fresh ingredients aren't always available, it depends on the time of year and, of course, the cost of the ingredients, I looked at alternatives and came up with tinned tomatoes and passata. There is nothing wrong with using tinned or sieved tomatoes; they can be perfect for a wide variety of uses, and because they are mass-produced, you can very often find them on the lower end of pricing. Needless to say, the really cheap tins will often contain a higher amount of water and a lower amount of tomato, and although they can be fine, of course, I tend to pay a little extra and go for products with more actual tomato, which is especially important if you're making a tomato sauce! That said, you could always add in some tomato paste to increase the tomato flavour, and this can help you make a flavourful sauce using cheaper ingredients.
I looked around to see who was offering a good price on tinned tomatoes and found although the mainstream supermarkets have some very good pricing, the tomato content in the cans was lower and had a higher percentage of tomato juice added, which isn't what I wanted, a tomato sauce needs tomatoes for flavour and consistency!
After some research, I found that Amazon's tinned tomatoes and passata brand were the most cost-effective way to buy. These came in at 45p each, or any 4 for £1.60, meaning they were 40p each. I used 6 cans of tinned tomatoes and passata to make this recipe and 6 cartons, so I spent £4.80.
It doesn't matter if you use canned chopped tomatoes or whole tomatoes; they are all going to cook down anyway. I prefer plum tomatoes as they have a nice sweet flavour, but just get what best suits your wallet as you're going to add other ingredients anyway, so the flavour will still be good! pe and 6 cartons, so I spent £4.80.
So, how do I make the sauce?
The best homemade tomato sauce doesn't have to be difficult to make! I use a straightforward and easy recipe that I learned while working for a Continental cafe back in the 90's, which made its own fresh pasta every day and its own pasta sauces. The pasta sauces were all made from a tomato base and just had other things added to it to make different types of pasta sauces. It's this homemade tomato sauce recipe base that I still make to this day, mainly because I know it's good, simple to make and can be used as a sauce base for a multitude of different pasta sauce recipes. It's kind of a marinara sauce, which is a flavourful sauce and can be used for pasta dishes and also as the pizza sauce on homemade pizza as well; it's a good all-around homemade sauce!
Making the sauce is really simple, Follow these simple steps.
I chop up a couple of onions, add them to the biggest pan I have, and then saute the onions on low heat with a glug of cooking oil. You don't have to use olive oil, that's expensive, but if you have it, go for it! Keep stirring them, and don't let them start to brown; you just want them to go translucent and not colour.
Halfway through, I start adding some spices and herbs. Now ideally, you'd use fresh herbs and spices such as fresh basil, bay leaves, garlic cloves, fresh oregano and thyme, but this isn't a TV show, and I live in the real world, and I don't have these in the kitchen, although I wish I did, as they are expensive and unlikely to be used much, so I use dried herbs I have in the kitchen cupboard! I add dried oregano, and most supermarkets sell an Italian herb mix and this is perfect for this type of recipe as it contains a selection of Italian-themed herb varieties that give great flavour to this delicious sauce. I always add extra oregano, though as I think that's the secret ingredient to a good tomato sauce. Equally important is of course garlic. What's a tomato sauce without garlic, so add this as well, and be generous. If you don't have fresh garlic, then use garlic granules or powder or garlic salt; just go easy on the garlic salt Otherwise, the sauce can get really salty, and that's not great. If you want it a little spicier, you can add some red pepper flakes as well.
In the past, I've added the contents of a Simply Cook Penne Alla Rustica recipe kit that I got for free (if you haven't used these guys before, you can get a pack of 4 kits for free using this LINK), which has a good Italian style flavour.
Stir all the herbs in with the onion, add a good pinch of salt and pepper, and let that cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, gently stirring. If it gets too dry, add some extra oil or a little cold water. Don't let it start to brown or get too dark. Once cooked through nicely, it's time to add the tomatoes. You can add just canned tomatoes, just passata or a mix of both. I use 6 in total, which is 4 tins of tomatoes and 2 packages of passata, and this seems to give a nice consistency and is slightly less watery.
Add all your tomatoes to the pan and give it a good stir with a ladle or a slotted spoon to make sure all the ingredients get combined nicely.
At this point, I usually add about a tablespoon of lemon juice and a tablespoon of brown sugar, and this helps give the sauce a slightly sweeter taste and the lemon juice adds some acidity to the tomatoes, which really brings out the flavour of the tomatoes, but this is optional.
Once you've given it a really good stir, pop on the lid or pop some foil over the top (it will splatter!), and allow it to simmer, not rapidly boil, for about 30 to 45 minutes, stirring it every 10 minutes or so, to ensure nothing sticks and burns on the bottom of the pan. You'll find the sauce will start to thicken up, and the colour will become darker. If you find it is still quite watery, remove the lid and let it cook for another 15 minutes; the water will evaporate, thickening the sauce during the cooking process.
You now have a batch of fresh tomato sauce! You have a choice now: leave it slightly chunky, or if you have kids like mine who hate chunky sauce, you can use a food processor, immersion blender, or handheld blender and give the sauce a whizz to make a smooth sauce. The longer you blend the sauce, the smoother it will become, and you'll find it goes lighter as well, almost like you've added cream! If you want a deeper red sauce, try not to blend for very long! Give it a taste while it's still reasonably warm (not boiling hot!) to check the seasoning. If it's a little bland, add a little salt, give it a good stir and then test it again. Remember, you can always add more salt, but you can't take it out, so add a little at a time and add more if needed!
This has made a lot of sauce, and many people wouldn't need or want to make that much sauce; however, I like to make a big batch, and then I can freeze or can it (preserve it in glass jars) to ensure we have enough to keep us going for a while. Freezing is simple; add a ladle and a half of sauce for each person to a freezer bag and pop it in the freezer. You can take it out of the freezer the night before you need it for a yummy dinner the next night. If you forget, pop the frozen sauce in a saucepan with a lid and put it on a low setting on the hob, and it will melt within 10 or 15 minutes. Once defrosted, use it as usual; make sure it's good and hot before you serve. Don't be tempted to throw it on a high-heat top defrost; it will likely just burn!
This has made a reasonably large amount of sauce; many people wouldn't need or want to make that much for one meal. I like to make a big batch, and then I can freeze or can it (preserve it in glass jars) to ensure we have enough to keep us going for a while. (It will keep in the fridge in an airtight container for about 3 days.) Freezing is really simple; add a ladle and a half of sauce for each person to a freezer bag and pop it in the freezer. Ensure the sauce is at room temperature before freezing it; don't try to freeze it when it's still hot! You can take it out of the freezer the night before you need it for a yummy dinner the next night. If you forget, pop the frozen sauce in a saucepan with a lid and put it on a low setting on the hob, and it will melt within 10 or 15 minutes. Once defrosted, use it as usual; make sure it's good and hot before you serve. Don't be tempted to throw it on a high heat to defrost; it will likely just burn!
The preservation option I use is canning. Now, you don't have to do this, of course; I prefer to, as the freezer room is always tricky, and this way, I can store it in my kitchen cupboard for use at a later date. It will last for around 18 months. It does add to the costs as you have to invest in jars and lids. To make it cheaper, you can keep old jars you may have and purchase new lids (never use the old lids; they do need to be new each time!), which you can get lids and jars from stores such as Lakeland, Home Bargains, Amazon , The Range and there are loads of specialist jar suppliers on the internet as well.
Once your jars are sterile, you then decant your sauce into the jars, leaving about an inch and a half of space between the sauce and the top, and firmly place on the lid. When these are all done, you move to the final step, water bathing the jars.
Pop the jars into a pan containing a rolling water boil and ensure the whole jar is covered. Boil for around 30 minutes for a smaller jar and 50 minutes for a larger jar, and then (carefully) remove the jars from the water and allow them to cool.
Pop the jars into a pan containing a rolling water boil and ensure the whole jar is covered. Boil for around 30 minutes for a smaller jar and 50 minutes for a larger jar, and then (carefully) remove the jars from the water and allow them to cool.
Once cooled, you can pop the jars away, and you then have homemade tomato sauce available as needed.
The sauces contain only the ingredients you have added, so no nasty preservatives or additives, making a tasty and healthier dinner option.
Yes, you may be able to buy supermarket-own-brand sauces for less than the cost of making this sauce, but in my opinion, these are just not as nice. I bought a 50p jar of own brand sauce from a supermarket recently, and frankly, it was like eating wallpaper paste, with an unpleasant consistency and very off-putting taste. My kids wouldn't eat it, and it was thrown away and wasted, which meant I had to cook something else, doubling my costs!
My cost for this particular recipe was as follows:
6x Pack tinned tomatoes = £2.40
6x Pack tomato passata = £2.40
4x Onions = 64p
Dried herbs & oil = 75p
Total ingredient cost = £6.19
This made around 8 litres of sauce, which is about 45 portions, and so worked out at about 13p per portion. The recipe made me 11 jars of 500ml sauces and 2 jars of 1000ml jars of sauce. There was actually more than this, but the youngest child ate some of it as he was hungry! A 500ml jar will serve 3 people, and the 1000ml jar will feed 6 people on average. I've not added the energy costs to this recipe, as I could not confirm the exact costs, but I would suspect around £1 energy costs (they change so often!), so the cost is likely to be about 15p per portion.
The final cost will differ depending on what price you have paid for your ingredients, your serving size, and if you preserve the sauce via the canning method, as there will be additional costs for using the energy to sanitise and water bathe the jars. So you have made a basic tomato sauce, and you can now use this to make yummy pasta, pizza, use it as a dipping sauce, you can even use it as a tomato soup; the possibilities are endless, and it's quick to heat up and serve for a lower cost, healthier and tasty dinner. It's also suitable for vegetarians and vegans, but you can quickly turn it into a meat sauce by adding your favourite cooked meats. The more you make it, the quicker it is to make and don't be afraid to add whatever you fancy from the fridge into it as well; it's a great way to use up veggies and other items in the fridge that might otherwise go to waste, and if you are going to make the sauce smooth, you can add lots of different veggies to the sauce, to add extra nutrients into your kids diet and as it's whizzed up, they don't know they're eating veggies ;)