A deliciously simple passata pasta sauce recipe with fantastic flavour

Food

Passata pasta sauce is a wonderful go to sauce recipe to make in bulk and freeze. It is so easy and simple to make and I find that the more you cook it, the more the flavour improves. So far from being inferior after being frozen and reheated, it tastes even better!

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Passata Pasta Sauce Recipe

Ingredients

A medium sized onion

A medium sized clove of garlic

700g passata

150g to 300g tomato puree 

1 teaspoon of yeast extract

Herbs to taste e.g. thyme, rosemary, oregano, lemon balm, bay leaves (could have a mix or just choose one flavour)

Salt and pepper

Method:

  1. Fry a medium sized chopped up onion and a clove of garlic in a saucepan with a little butter or cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for around 5 to 10 minutes.  You could also avoid fat and just use water.
  2. Add the passata, tomato puree, herbs and yeast extract to the saucepan and stir.
  3. Season with pepper to taste (the yeast extract adds saltiness).
  4. Cook the sauce for around 10 minutes.  
  5. Once cooked use immediately or allow to cool and pour into containers for freezing.

Passata pasta sauce tips and adaptations

If you forget to take it out the freezer in time for when you need it, the sauce can be defrosted on a low heat in a saucepan. As I said earlier the second cooking will make it taste even better!  I usually use this sauce on pasta and rice and recently in lasagna.

You can of course tweak this sauce before freezing or afterwards by adding vegetables and/ or spices of your choice. If you are going to add chopped up vegetables it will need cooking for longer. I use my Wonderbag to slow cook the stew, which really brings out the flavour of the tomatoes! If you are going to do this, cook the recipe for 30 mins, make sure the sauce is piping hot, then transfer it to a trivet in a Wonderbag and leave for 3 to 4 hours to cook. You can leave it chunky, or blend it into a smooth sauce (great for hiding veggies in, if you have fussy eaters).

I always freeze my food in plastic take away style containers which I reuse until they break.

Note:  Herbs can be expensive if you buy them from the shops, but are cheap and easy to grow if you have a little outside space or even if you don’t – I highly recommend giving it a go!

Passata pasta sauce
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Comments

  1. gina caro

    This looks really good and simple to make. Think I'll give it a go. We also use plastic takeaway type containers for freezing food, that and freezer bags for things like cooked apples etc 🙂

  3. Poor and Gluten Free

    Yours is the second freezer pasta sauce I've come across today, it must be a sign that I should start doing this, too 😉 I freeze food in old yogurt containers, or Mason jars with freezer lids (more eco-friendly ;). Thanks so much for sharing this on Waste Not Want Not Wednesday, I've pinned it.

  4. Zoe

    Thanks for the freezer container tips. I have used glass jam jars to freeze things in, always making sure that I leave some space in the jar and never screwing the lid on tightly until they are completely frozen. The problem I find with jars though is that they don't stack well i.e. don't make the best use of space and the safest way to defrost them is slowly, which means you always have to plan ahead when you want to use the contents of the jar… I haven't tried mason jars though – they might be worth a try..

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