Fundamental & Versatile Tomato Sauce

This sauce is my life saver at the moment. I always cook at least 3 portions and freeze 2 of them. I use BPA free plastic bags and flatten the content before sealing it, which speeds up the defrosting and if I only want 1/2 a meal I can break the frozen sauce in half due to being a thin layer and not one big blob. In the microwave the sauce defrosts /cooks in a few minutes. I usually have cooked brown rice in the fridge, so I cook the sauce for 2 minutes, stir, add the rice for one more minute and its done. Best 3 minute meal you can imagine.

In this photo-shoot I used black rice, but it is delicious with any rice, noodles or veggie spirals.

I eat it most often with brown rice or brown rice noodles.

Doing it Properly with Fresh Tomatoes

Cooking it with fresh rather than canned tomatoes takes a tiny bit longer of course. Using fresh tomatoes is my preferred method when I have enough time. But a can of tomatoes or barilla ready made paste sauce has found its way in my pots occasionally-

To make it with fresh tomatoes you need to plan in may be ten more minutes. And you need a blender or food processor to crush the cooked and peeled tomatoes. It is worth the extra effort!

This recipe is also the base for my Chili-Non-Carne which I will add asap to the recipe index.

Due to all rice performing differently when cooking it, I will not include a method at this stage.

I will add a basics tab soon in the recipe index describing how I cook my brown rice with the absorption method and how to avoid sticky rice noodles -

Until then please cook your rice or noodles according to packet instructions. You may have to start cooking your rice before you start the sauce, due to some rice taking up to 50 minutes to cook.

I also love this sauce on carrot or zucchini noodles, either spiralised or cut with a julienne peeler and fried to your liking. Especially carrot fried until soft and slightly brown is naturally sweet and amazing. I eat this sauce for dinner prepared this way, as I don't eat rice, noodles and potatoes for dinner- If you don't have a spiraliser or julienne peeler google how to julienne carrot, heaps of info out there.

I do not use onions or garlic in any of my recipes, instead I use ginger, chilli and spices to create depth in the sauce. I used to think it is impossible to have a tomato sauce without onions and garlic until I tried and tested many variations of this sauce excluding those and found that it is possible and actually delicious!

And your gut will thank you for it-

This recipe is my favourite.

Ingredients for Sauce

this makes approximately 3 portions
8 medium tomatoes
1 red capsicum
about 350 gr cocktail tomatoes, halved
ginger
10 kalamata olives (I prefer un-pitted ones and pitt them myself, they are tasting less of the brine this way. To get rid of the pips, place olive on a board and simply push your thumb on top of the olive, it will crack open and you can remove the pip)
1 deseeded small red chilli, chopped or
1/2 tea chilli or cayenne powder
1/4 tea pink salt
1 tea dried oregano
1 tea dried basil
pinch nutmeg
pinch cinnamon
pinch stevia powder
black or brown rice, prepared to your liking, or per packet instructions or rice noodles. Even gluten-free pasta would be nice.
Also delicious on fried zucchini or carrot spirals, which is what I use when eating this for dinner

How to Skin Tomatoes for a Sauce

bring a large pot of water to the boil
slice the skin of the tomatoes with a knife, from one side to the other. Don't cut deeply, you only need to perforate the skin
set aside until water boils
add tomatoes to boiling water and simmer for about 2-3 minutes

Skin Loosens and Cracks

watch the skin lifting off after 2-3 minutes
once you see the slits getting bigger and more cracks appear they are ready to be removed from the boiling water
I use a ladle to remove them, this way you can check all of them and make sure the skin has cracked enough
the stubborn ones you just leave in the boiling water for one more minute

Skin lift-off!

this is what they have to roughly look like after 2-3 minutes, the skins will start cracking and they are almost peeling off by themselves

Quick Cool Down

to be able to handle them fast I drop the tomatoes in a bowl with very cold water and I throw in a handful of ice cubes to achieve the right temperature.
you can almost watch the skin falling off
as soon as you can handle the heat of the tomatoes remove them and take the skin off

The Coat is OFF!

it is amazing how easy the skin comes off now
I halve them now and cut the stems out
blitz them in a food processor until you have the consistency that you like. Don't blend them until you have tomato juice, it is nice to have some texture and smaller bits still left.
keep aside to add to the pan later

Process

chop the red pepper into small squares
cut the cocktail tomatoes in half
de-seed and chop your chilli if using
cut the olives into small bits
grate the ginger: you need 1 TB
I usually grate the whole piece of ginger and freeze the rest
heat 1 TB coconut oil in the pan, medium heat
add ginger, chilli and spices and fry till the ginger is soft and you can smell the spices
add the capsicum and cook 1-2 minutes until slightly softened
add the blitzed tomatoes, olives and halved tomatoes.
add 2 TB of red wine (optional)
cook gently until it reaches the desired softness of the capsicum and tomatoes, about 5-10 minutes.
to make a 4th portion out of this I do cheat sometimes and add a jar of barilla olive or arrabiata sauce or a small can of blitzed canned tomatoes. I then ad another 1/2 capsicum too.

If you cheat....

make sure to adjust the spices, depending what cheating method you use.
adding a jar of barilla arrabiata or olive does not require more spices to my mind
however adding a can of tomatoes makes the sauce too bland and I would adjust the spices. I just add these items again
1/2 tea chilli or cayenne powder (optional)
1/4 tea pink salt
1 tea dried oregano
1 tea dried basil
pinch nutmeg
pinch cinnamon
pinch stevia powder