In their forum Coles brought up a subject of bottled pasta sauces. Some of the suggestions were Butter and burnt sage. Hate to think what chemicals they will put in the bottle to stop butter from solidifying and from going rancid.
Then one of the sauces had tomatoes, chilli and bacon… what’s wrong with getting plain sauce and adding bacon and spice?
One of the readers pointed out that sauces are for the time poor people. Agreed but melting butter and adding sage while pasta is cooking doesn’t take up more time as the bottled sauce will still need to be warmed up.
List of Sauces suggested with results next to them.
Burnt butter and sage
25.2%
Pesto based i.e. basil or sundried tomato
41.0%
Porcini mushroom
38.8%
Spicy arrabbiata (tomato, bacon and chilli)
31.1%
Tomato and mascarpone
19.7%
Carbonara
38.3%
Puttanesca (tomato, anchovy and olives)
19.2%
Pumpkin cream
21.6%
Aglio e Olio (garlic, parsley and olive oil)
34.2%
I don’t eat pasta sauces (you selected this answer)
11.9%
To make Tomato sauce as in slather food in it type uses just too much sugar so we do not make it and I don’t buy it or use it.
But every one is different and some cannot eat a meal without adding it.
I like cooking or nuking the tomatoes and then peel and mash them, add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy over lamb, beef, and chicken. For an added benefit with the right meal onions softened in a pan with butter and adding the mashed tomatoes is a small slice of heaven.
Home made is the best, but we sometimes buy organic sauces from the shop.
Over summer a few years ago the 8 tomato plants I had in the aquaponics produced 160kg of tomatoes, and there have been significant crops each summer apart from the the most recent, so sauce making is certainly a big activity here
We didn’t get to make sauce this past summer due to rodents chewing off so many tomato seedlings, so only ended up getting a very small crop, and with no home mades left in the pantry we buy various organic sauces, depending on where we are shopping at the time.
My sauce recipes varied depending on what else I had at the time, but this is one from 29/1/2014, AP= from the aquaponics system.
8kg AP tomatoes
120g AP spring onions
90g AP capsicums
60 dark agave syrup (not much added sugar, but they last at least 3 years without going off)
50g lemon juice
45g olive oil
22g AP garlic
20g salt
10g paprika
6g AP chives
4g AP purple basil
2 pinches of pepper
That made 2 X 1l jars, 1 X 700ml jar, 2 X 500ml jars, 5 X 300ml jars, and the rest of the batch hot, as thick tomato soup!
I however find that a manufactured sauce tastes quite differently to a home made sauce…possibly due to the ingredients added and maybe also the method of manufacturer.
Irrespective of this, we try and make our own sauces where possible rather than buying premade bottled/satchet sauces as the manufactured ones are usually sweeter, saltier or have things added which we would not usually add to food at home…
The main thing that I wonder about with bought sauces is how they make them so red! My home made sauce is never as red as any shop bought sauce, despite the tomatoes being red.
I’ve had plenty of tomatoes damaged by the sun, so only grow them under shadecloth now, although the sun still gets some of them. Damaged skin and hard white areas are the result of too much hot sun.
Purchased a packet at Coles… might try specialty shops next time. The recipe called for 20-40 min coking time. Took almost 2 hours and I got fed up or it could have done with another 30 min stove top to get them to soften.
McKenzie were not as fresh as the recipe called for. Next time at Paddy’s markets and getting nuts will see if they sell them as well.
tried growing strawberries on the balcony… first year nothing, second year 6. Lost 3 to green monsters… following years nothing. Finally threw organic plant out as it never fruited again. was not suppose to shoot runners and it had.
Had same luck with raspberries… some plants are not meant for planters and hot balcony sun.
Try an Indian supermarket. Chickpeas are a staple and they sell Aussie grown ones cheaply.
Also love hummus, and being garlicophiles, we add enough to ensure it has a warm garlic taste. We also use sesame seeds instead of tahini …it is added with other ingredients and blended very well, before adding chickpeas.
