It’s really funny how this one came about.

At the end of last year, my dad brought home about 30 tomatoes. No joke, my kitchen was overflowing with this bright red fruit (vegetable?). I honestly feel uncomfortable calling a tomato a fruit, it just doesn’t feel right.

If you’ve read my post on this simple spinach and parmesan pesto, you’ll know that I love pasta from my head to-ma-toes. It’s honestly the best thing on this planet, next to chocolate of course. If there are two things that are meant to be together in this world, they are pasta and tomatoes. To be more specific, tomatoes that have been simmered for a couple of hours, with fresh fragrant herbs mixed in to give it that enticing aroma and I am going to stop before I drown in a pool of my own drool. Tomato sauce is okay, marinara sauce is great but this version is the best. After many weeks of tweaking and adjusting, I have finally come up with the variation of this sauce that I love the most.

Once made, don’t keep this to yourself, share it with others! I have a friend who brings pasta to school every single day for lunch. I have known him for 4 years now, and he’s still bringing pasta to school. No joke. Every day without fail, one of his parents will deliver a lunchbox with pasta to school. Just to mix things up a little, I decided to give him a jar full of this sauce to try out at home. I can confidently assure you that it received his stamp of approval and it’s the reason why you see this post up today. Shout out to all my pasta lovers out there.

The Best Pasta Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 6-8 medium fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped (IN CASE OF EMERGENCY use 3×14 oz tinned tomatoes, but the taste won’t be nearly the same)
• ½ cup vegetable stock
• a handful of fresh rosemary (may sub 2 tsp dried rosemary)
• a handful of fresh basil leaves, roughly torn (may sub 2 tsp dried basil)
• a handful of fresh oregano (may sub 2 tsp dried oregano)

Method

Heat a heavy bottomed cast iron pot on high and add enough vegetable oil to cover the bottom of the pot. Fry the onion until translucent, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, vegetable stock and herbs. Give the tomatoes a quick stir and season with salt and pepper.

Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until the tomatoes have cooked down released their juices. If you’d like your sauce to be chunky, then great news, you’re all done! Store in a sterilised glass jar in the fridge for up to a month. If you’d like a smooth sauce then add the contents of the pot to a blender and puree for 2 minutes or until there are no longer any large tomato pieces before adding to a glass jar for storage. Use in pastas, as a base for pizza or as a sandwich spread (as my friend recently started doing). Enjoy!