Every month for years now I make up a batch of this tomato sauce, we use it as the base for pastas sauces, chilli, soups, all sorts... we put it in the freezer in meal sized portions and whip it out when needed, its much better and cheaper than anything you can buy in a jar - and once you've made a batch you'll never go back!
The recipe below is for a months supply which is the most economical way to make it - (about 8 meals)
INGREDIENTS
8 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes (I usually use 4 of the very cheap ones and 4 of the medium priced ones)
6 large cloves of garlic peeled and cut in half
3 red onions medium sized - finely chopped
400ml olive oil (feels like a lot but its not)
30g salt
30g sugar
3g course black pepper
DIRECTIONS
Pour the olive oil into a large saucepan and heat for a couple of minutes until very hot.
put the garlic into the oil, followed by the onions after about 30 seconds, the oil should be simmering not boiling - after about four minutes or once the onions have begun to go transparent (avoid burning) then add the tins of tomatoes and allow to cook on a medium simmer for about an hour with the lid off (its a long time but well worth it) or until the sauce has reduced by about a third. Make sure you stir regularly so that the tomatoes don't stick to the bottom of the pan.
Remove the pan from the heat and add the salt, sugar and pepper, stir and allow to cool then blitz / sieve until smooth (to be honest nowadays I tend to whisk/mash it just to break down the garlic cloves and keep the sauce a bit lumpier).
Once cold put the sauce into freezable containers/bags in meal sized portions - three ladles is enough for a 4 person pasta sauce.
Remove from the freezer when ready to use and cook straight from frozen, of course at this point you can add veg, and herbs but the depth of the sauce taste is incredible and makes cooking brilliantly easy and quick when you come home after as long day at work - feel free to add water, it increases the quantity but doesn't seem to destroy depth of flavour.
* The original recipe is from Family Meal but I have tweaked it a little over the years.
