It’s astonishing how many people get really serious about pasta sauce, even if they don’t do much other cooking. Pasta Sauce seems to be a matter of male pride, like power tools and lawn mowers. One of my friends told me proudly that he’d perfected cooking Matt Preston’s best-ever Bolognese, which takes some 4 hours and about half a million ingredients to cook.
This recipe isn’t like that. Like all our recipes, it’s dead simple and doesn’t involve minced meat since I loathe it’s texture and mouth feel. I prefer chunks of meat or chicken or chorizo … anything rather than minced meat. Meatballs, if you must, but that’s another recipe. I also prefer a chunky sauce to one that’s just pulp. This recipe is designed to work as a vegetarian dish as well, just with Parmesan cheese, but you can add anything you want – even seafood such as prawns and calamari.
Ingredients
- Leeks, coarsely chopped
- Field mushrooms
- Zucchini
- Garlic – choose how much
- 2 – 3 anchovies (optional)
- Tin of crushed tomatoes
- Teaspoon of olive tapenade
- a cup or more of Passata
- 3 – 4 tbspoons of green pesto
- Cup of dry white wine
- 2 Bay Leaves
- Oregano
- Rosemary
- Fresh basil, chopped up
- Chili flakes
- Seasoning
What you do from here is pretty obvious:
- Fry the first bunch of stuff at the top for 10 minutes
- Add the second bunch of stuff above and simmer for another 10
- Add the third bunch of stuff and simmer for another 10
- Add any seafood, meat, meatballs, chicken or sausages at this time (I assume you’ve fried or roasted them separately)
Keep tasting and adjusting the herbs and seasoning. You’re all done.
You know how to boil your favourite pasta, don’t you?
Check the rest of our dead simple yet really great recipes
Kim