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ClassicTomato sauce

makes about 2 - 2.5 litres finished sauce :
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Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 40 g butter
  • 40 g plain flour
  • 60 g smoky bacon diced small
  • 1 cup carrots washed, small dice
  • 1 cup onions peeled, small dice
  • 1 cup celery washed, small dice, avoid leaf
  • 6 mushroom stalks optional
  • 4 parsley stalks
  • 2 cloves garlic peeled, thinly sliced
  • 2 sprigs thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 3 400g cans crushed tomatoes
  • 1 litre vegetable stock
  • Scant salt and pepper

Equipment

  • You’ll need a thick bottom lidded saucepan or Dutch oven and a strainer for this recipe.

Method
 

  1. Ingredients
  2. Melt the butter in over medium heat and gently sauté the bacon.
  3. Add the carrots, onion, celery, mushroom stalk and garlic and sweat for a further 5 minutes
  4. Take the saucepan off the heat and mix in the flour. Return the saucepan to the heat and add the stock and tomatoes. Stir to break up the roux.
  5. Add the thyme, parsley and bay leaf
  6. Bring  liquid to the boil before turning down to a low simmer and lid the pot
  7. Simmer for 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching
  8. Strain the sauce, avoiding pushing the vegetables through the sieve.
  9. If needed return the sauce to the saucepan to further concentrate the sauce
  10. A little seasoning when done
  11. Use, refrigerate or freeze the finished sauce

Notes

A dated recipe, but still tasty. More relevant for perhaps a cream of tomato soup
You may be wondering, after looking at the last picture, why do we throw away all the vegetables? Firstly remember it is a Tomato sauce not tomato and vegetable sauce. However if you take more care with preparing the vegetables, that is peeling the carrot and celery and making sure the cuts are actually even in size and then removing the thyme and bay leaf you would then have a different sauce without straining.