Jamie Cooks Italy
By Jamie Oliver
Hero tomato sauce
Sweet cherry tomatoes, garlic, chilli & basil
20 mins
Not Too Tricky
makes 1
About the recipe
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. Enjoy.
Recipe From
Ingredients
4 cloves of garlic
olive oil
2 fresh red chillies
1 big bunch of fresh basil (60g)
4 x 400g tins of quality cherry tomatoes
Top Tip
EASY SWAPS:
– Tinned plum tomatoes or passata would be absolutely fine here, use what you’ve got.
Method
- 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.
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