Recipe – Quick Greek Tomato Sauce with Basil

Oh, I’m late home today, it’s already one o clock, and we usually eat at two, I’ve not even thought about lunch!

After putting on my thinking cap, I came up with spaghetti and tomato sauce.

This tasty, Greek tomato sauce is quick and easy to make and the spaghetti only needs about seven minutes to boil, it would be ready with time to spare.

I gathered the ingredients together and got going.

Ingredients for tomato sauce

100 ml Olive oil

1 carton tomato puree or tomato juice 450 gr

200 ml water

2 grated fresh tomatoes (optional)

2 chopped onions

1 clove chopped garlic

2 teaspoons dried basil or dried basil

Salt & pepper to taste

Fresh basil to serve

Grated cheese

Method

Put the oil into a saucepan and heat up before adding the chopped onion and garlic.

Saute this for about five minutes and add the tomato puree and water.

At this stage, because I had two rather squashy tomatoes, I grated them and added them to the sauce. I never throw soft tomatoes away; I grate them; halve tomatoes horizontally and grate, using the large holes on grater. Discard skins, and add to soups and sauces.

If not needed straight away, keep the grated tomato it in a jar in the fridge, it will keep for up to a week.

Bring the sauce to the boil, lower heat to a simmer; add the dried basil and salt & pepper.

Simmer for about twenty minutes, stirring occasionally.

The sauce will be ready now, but can be simmered for up to an hour, this will produce a thicker sauce, which I prefer, but when you don’t have time, well, you just don’t have time!

While the sauce is simmering, put plenty of water to boil in a large saucepan for the spaghetti, adding a teaspoon of salt.

Any pasta, fresh or dried can be used; the quickest is spaghettini number 10.

It only takes seven minutes of boiling.

(Follow cooking directions on package)

While the water is coming to the boil, grate some delicious, Greek, kefalotiri cheese, or Parmesan, any type of hard cheese will do.

Grate it fresh, with an old fashioned grater, never buy ready-grated or grate it in a processor, it’s much better, believe me!

Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain it and rinse quickly with cold water, to stop any further cooking and to prevent the spaghetti becoming too soft.

A tip here, leave a tiny amount of water with the spaghetti when putting it back into the pan or bowl, it keeps it from drying and becoming sticky.

Serve the spaghetti with a good helping of the tomato sauce, sprinkle with fresh basil and grated cheese.

Voila!
A hot tasty meal, cooked in no time!

This delicious sauce is perfect for freezing, whip up a large batch, eat half, freeze half, as I do, this way, you will always have a basic tomato sauce on hand, great for homemade pizza!