Basic Tomato Sauce

You will need:

- Large saucepan
- Knife
- Chopping board
- Wooden spoon
- Vegetable peeler

- A medium sized onion
- A clove of garlic
- Dried oregano
- Tin of tomatoes
- Tomato puree
- 1 X Carrot
- 1 X stick of celery
- Olive oil

1.  Start by finely chopping the carrot, celery, garlic and onion.  Put about a tablespoon (here after known as a 'glug') of olive oil into the saucepan and put over a medium heat.  

2.  Once it is warm add a teaspoon of oregano and the chopped vegetables.  Cook them slowly to allow them to soften and release their flavours.  This is known as 'sweating'.  Stir them often to stop them from sticking to the pan.  

3.  When the onion has turned yellow and is slightly translucent, add the tin of tomatoes and a dessert spoon of tomato puree and stir. Leave for a few minutes and then taste the sauce.  Tinned tomatoes can require a little sugar to sweeten them.  It is also the time to add salt and pepper.  Heed on the side of caution and add a little and then taste.  You can always add more but can't take it out.  Leave on a low/medium heat for 15 minutes.

This is a quick and easy sauce which goes well with pasta.  If you have frozen peas/sweetcorn you could add them whilst the sauce is cooking or add some grated cheese to the top.  If you have a few rashers of bacon that need eating, you could cut them up and cook with the vegetables at the beginning to add a bit of protein.  One of my brother's favourite ways to cook this sauce is to make it into 'breakfast pasta' with sausage/bacon, mushrooms and a tin of beans. 

One of my personal favourite variations of this pasta sauce for children is for 'traffic light pasta'.  The tomatoes obviously are the red but you add a yellow/orange pepper, sweetcorn for the amber and then peas, courgettes or spinach for the green.  It's a good recipe to get children involved in because they can help to pick the traffic lights. (If you want to continue the theme you can get tricolour pasta)

If you have a bit of extra time you can make a classic tuna pasta bake (staple end of the month food from my childhood)  Add a tin of tuna towards the end of cooking, put cooked pasta into the sauce, stir and then transfer to a baking dish.  Cover in grated cheese (and bread crumbs if you have a few slice on the turn) and bake in a medium oven until the cheese is golden.