“By using top-quality tinned cherry tomatoes, which have a wonderful natural sweetness, you’re able to achieve a truly elegant and vivacious sauce that really sings of summer but can be made all year round. One taste, and you’ll be transported back to warm summer nights in Italy – you can’t argue with that! This sauce works really well for lots of recipes and to be honest, I just like to make a batch when I have time, ready to use in all kinds of dishes in the days that follow. It’s a great freezer staple, and a recipe I hope you’ll come back to again and again. And, of course, you don’t have to make this as a big batch – the quantities in the recipe are easy to scale down if you want to just make what you need. Enjoy. ”
Peel and finely slice the garlic and place in a large pan on a medium heat with 2 tablespoons of oil.
Fry until lightly golden, stirring occasionally, while you halve the chillies lengthways (deseed if you like) and stir into the pan. Tear in the basil (stalks and all).
Scrunch in the tomatoes through your clean hands, then swirl a little water around each tin and pour into the pan. Bring the whole lot to the boil, then simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat, and now you’ve got a choice – you can either leave the sauce chunky, or I like to pass it through a coarse sieve, making sure to really push all that goodness through.
Taste, season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper, and you’re done. You can use the sauce straight away, cover and keep it in the fridge for up to 1 week, or divide between ziplock bags, label and freeze in portions for future meals.
Tips
EASY SWAPS:
– Tinned plum tomatoes or passata would be absolutely fine here, use what you’ve got.