Roast Vegetable and Tomato Sauce

An easy, inexpensive, all round tasty sauce...

This is a rich sauce that can be used in so many ways. Stir it through cooked pasta for an instant tasty midweek dinner, as a base sauce for lasagna and spaghetti bolognaise, as a pizza sauce,  or just as a pour over addition to absolutely anything.

​The ingredients can be literally anything you have hanging around and it's up to you whether you leave it chunky, or blitz it for a smoother finish.  

​To help you get an idea for a combination of flavours, this is the recipe for the latest batch I made.  

Ingredients
The following roughly chopped.
2 onions
2 red peppers
1 red chilli
1 courgette
2 sticks of celery
2 carrots
2 cloves of garlic (don't chop these - just add them skins and all)
1 small aubergine
5 small to medium mushrooms

You will also need
2 bay leaves
3 sprigs of rosemary
3 tins of chopped tomatoes
2 vegetable stock cubes
​Olive oil
Salt and pepper

​Line a baking tray with a sheet of foil topped with a sheet of baking paper.  Drizzle over some olive oil and pile your chopped veg, garlic, bay leaves and rosemary onto it.  Drizzle over more olive oil, add salt and pepper and place into an oven, preheated to 180C and prepare for your kitchen to be invaded by delicious smells!  After 30 to 40 minutes, remove the veg and give them a little stir. The veg should be softening nicely and breaking down,  Add more olive oil if you feel it needs it. Return to the oven and roast for a further 30 minutes or so.  Remove the veg from the oven. Take away the rosemary stalks (the leaves will have fallen from the stalks) and place into a large pan on the stove top.  Add your tinned tomatoes, plus one tin full of water, and your vegetable stock cubes.  Bring to a simmer and let it blib away for ten minutes or so.  Taste and adjust seasoning.  

Now its up to you whether you freeze the sauce as is, or blend to a smoother consistency. You could even do a mix of chunky and blended if you like. If blending, a stick blender is best as you can control the consistency more easily. The sauce will be quite thick, but I prefer it that way. You can always add water or stock when you cook with it. Allow it to cool and it can then be decanted into containers and frozen. You can also freeze in large ziplock bags placed on top of each other, if freezer space is an issue.