Making your own sauces from scratch is not as intimidating as everyone makes it out to be once you have the right fresh ingredients. Adding the right sauce to your Italian pasta or pizza base is key. You can even dip your breadsticks in it for a snack. Once you make your own sauce you will never look back.
Cooking with fresh ingredients right from your garden and blending those red ripe tomatoes along with some staple ingredients that everyone keeps in their pantry is a good start. Venues use fresh ingredients from their garden whenever the opportunity arises as fresh organic produce is always best when making sauces.
Home made spaghetti sauce is one of those go to comfort foods that everyone should have readily available. It is just very easy to make using less than 10 ingredients which all up makes it cheap to buy and freezes well. Is it starting to sound all too saucey for you?
Navarra Venues Chef Carlo Staropoli releases his two favourite sauces;
Napoletana Sauce
Serves 4
- 1 finely diced onion
- 4 finely diced garlic
- 1 kg tomatoes
- 15 basil leaves chopped
- 100ml olive oil
- 100ml of water
Customise by adding one of the following;
- Bay Leaves
- Rosemary
- Chilli
Combining the ingredients:
In a pot place the olive oil and sauté the garlic, onion and basil. Cook until the onion has a slightly golden tinge. Place a tomato, a spoon of white sugar, salt and black pepper.
Place them in the pot with 100ml of water and let the ingredients all cook for 30 minutes at a medium flame once it starts boiling.
You must keep mixing all the ingredients to avoid the garlic and onion sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Feel free to customise this recipe with your own touches by adding bay leaves, rosemary or chilli.
Once cooked add salt and pepper for extra flavour.
Primavera Sauce
Serves 4
- 30 ml Olive Oil
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 (can) punnet of cherry tomatoes
- 2 cloves of garlic
- ½ an onion
- 5 basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- ½ glass of water
- Pinch of Salt
- Pinch of Pepper
Combining all the ingredients:
In a frypan place olive oil, and sauté finely diced onion and garlic. When the onion is cooked combine the cherry tomatoes, water, sugar and let them cook for approximately 10 minutes. Squeeze the tomatoes with either a fork or spoon and keep cooking.
Add butter and chopped basil leaves. Fix some salt and black pepper and then it will be ready to add to your favourite type of pasta. Buon Appetito!
You can meet Chef Carlo Staropoli at Lilyfield’s Café Lobby where he uses these sauces on various pasta’s and even on his pizza bases. The mercato set up at Café Lobby also allows you the opportunity to pick up your favourite pasta and olive oil if you have made the sauce at home.
