Easy Tomato Basil Sauce

This easy Tomato Basil sauce is flavored with only garlic, fresh basil, rosemary, thyme and a touch of oregano. It is as simple as it gets and is delicious and can be used for Pastas as well as Pizzas. I stopped relying on mass produced stuff few years ago once I discovered how easy it is to make my own!

This sauce takes 15 minutes to come together but as I used large quantities, my time was a lot more. Anyhow these are the ingredients to make a batch which will at least last me 3-4 sittings and can be stored in the refrigerator for a month or so.

Ingredients:

• 1.2 kg of Tomatoes, the hybrid ones
• 2 medium sized Onions, finely chopped
• 8-10 peeled cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• 15-20 leaves of Italian Basil or Sweet Basil
• 1 small sprig of fresh Rosemary
• 1 dried or fresh red chilli
• 2 sprigs of Thyme
• Dried or fresh Oregano
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste
• Packed Italian Seasoning, I used Orika’s Italian Seasoning 2 packets, you can use Dominoes too

Instructions for Tomato Basil Sauce:

1. Score your tomatoes and blanch them in hot water to remove the skins from them. Lightly chop them into smaller pieces and keep aside.

2. Add 1 tablespoon on olive oil and equal quantity of butter in a pan and add the garlic and one red chili. As the garlic begins to brown up add the finely chopped onions and saute till they become translucent.

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3. Add the tomatoes and cook on medium heat for 10 minutes after covering the pan, stirring occasionally. After they are slightly mushy use the back of a wooden ladle or a spatula to gently mash the tomatoes while stirring to combine them. Add 4-5 torn leaves of basil, half of the rosemary, thyme and oregano at this point.

4. Now simmer gently without the lid for anything from 20 minutes to 40 depending on how much time you have, this basically reduces the sauce and you can continue mashing it for your desired consistency. As I had more than a kilo of tomatoes, my entire process took about 45-50 mins but it can be done in lesser time if you cover the pan to cook faster.

5. Add some Italian seasoning, salt and pepper to taste and fresh basil right before taking it off the pan and let it cool down, if you want to blitz it for consistency you can do that too!

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If you have seen my other recipe for the roasted version, you will definitely see a color difference and as I made these sauces on consecutive days I could definitely feel the taste difference between the two. Here is the link to that in case you want to attempt that.