Quick pasta dinner....

I have had an eventful couple of days to say the least. Slashing my hand, trying to set my sitting room on fire and culminating last night by filling my husband's diesel car up with unleaded fuel! Today was a bit of a blur as we only had one car and I had to drop my husband to Mullingar for work, I had a work meeting to attend, two school pick ups and back to Mullingar to pick up Raymond! I needed a quick and easy dinner to throw together to keep the children going and to ensure plenty of fuel for under 11's soccer training. Pasta is my go to dinner on busy days as it is super quick and dinner can be on the kitchen table in a few minutes.

Pasta sauce

2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
400g can of chopped tomatoes
500g passata
1tsp sugar
Handful of fresh basil
2tbsp rapeseed oil

Heat the rapeseed oil in a large pan.
Add the garlic and onions and cook until softenened.
Add the tomatoes, passata and sugar and allow to simmer for fifteen minutes.
Add the basil and simmer for a further five minutes.
Set aside to cool slightly before blending.

This sauce is a brilliant sauce as it is easy to change the flavours, here are a few of my favourites;

Add a 1/2 teaspoon of chilli flakes to make a spicy sauce.

Roast some peppers until the skins are blistery and charred before adding to the pot.

Roast garlic in the oven until soft inside and squeeze into the pot of sauce.

Add fried chorizo after blending, in fact add chorizo to anything and I will gobble it up!

Today time was against me so I just blended the sauce and added it to some cooked pasta, topped with some extra basil and a grinding of black pepper and served alongside some homemade garlic bread. It made for a comforting meal which was badly needed!

It's very handy to make a double quantity and have some sauce in the fridge or freezer. Great to top some pizza with, add to lasagne or use as a base for tomato soup. Autumn days are truly here!