How Britain fell out of love with pasta sauce

As you may have read, I "make" my own sauces and with the exception of black pepper sauce and mustard sauce I use tinned condensed soup as a base. Generally mushroom soup to which I add onions, garlic, chili and Worcestershire sauce and tomato soup to which I add onions, garlic and fresh basil. Depending upon the use for the mushroom sauce I may add more chopped mushrooms.
 
We don't make a lot of pasta recipes although I did when my daughter was young. I never used to buy the bottled sauces because they tasted funny to me. Now, if I make a pasta sauce, I use tinned tomatoes as a base.
 
This evening we had spaghetti carbonara, bacon and mushrooms cooked off then added a pot of Sainsburys sauce. It was fine for what it was but I find other sauces suggary sweet, bitter or just unpleasant to eat so we don't bother. We sometimes have filled pasta for a Friday lunch, quick and easy, we just drizzle over some olive oil no sauce required.
 
Duck59 said:
VSO volunteer pasta sauce (Eritrean style):

1) Smash a few tomatoes into pulp.
2) Add onions and garlic.
3) Sling in some red lentils.
4) Boil spaghetti.
5) Chuck it all together.
6) Eat.
7) Moan about the field office.
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Sounds OK to me. You would have to cook those onions for a while though. I've been thinking about the way we cook onions recently. We have got into the habit of frying them in recent times. At least, I'm thinking that is a recent thing. I may be wrong - but I can remember 'boiled onions'. And why not? I'm thinking I may experiment with boiling/simmering onions. And then there are onions baked whole...
 
Limited options on a Deathwish (registered trademark) Chinese stove, so frying with garlic the usual method. I normally grill onions these days, but no such choice available to impoverished volunteers.
 
morning glory said:
Sounds OK to me. You would have to cook those onions for a while though. I've been thinking about the way we cook onions recently. We have got into the habit of frying them in recent times. At least, I'm thinking that is a recent thing. I may be wrong - but I can remember 'boiled onions'. And why not? I'm thinking I may experiment with boiling/simmering onions. And then there are onions baked whole...
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add salt and pepper to everything below
Boiled with a little butter and about a teaspoon of sugar.
Baked: scored then a bit of butter and sugar inside, wrap in foil and place in either the oven or barbecue pit.
Or Grilled (US), slice, put on foil. Add a touch of butter and sugar. Make foil into a packet. Place on grill until done to your liking.
 
Cinisajoy said:
add salt and pepper to everything below
Boiled with a little butter and about a teaspoon of sugar.
Baked: scored then a bit of butter and sugar inside, wrap in foil and place in either the oven or barbecue pit.
Or Grilled (US), slice, put on foil. Add a touch of butter and sugar. Make foil into a packet. Place on grill until done to your liking.
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Could one substitute a halogen oven for the oven and grill?
 
morning glory said:
Do you use ready made pasta sauces? It seems that, in the UK, sales of these sauces have fallen. According to a report from trade journal the Grocer, sales of cooking sauces fell by £30m in 2016 – 3.7% in value – the sixth consecutive year of decline. The magazine attributes this to the 'health agenda' - to warnings such as the one issued last April by Mars Foods, owner of the Dolmio and Uncle Ben’s brands, that the high salt and sugar levels in some products mean they should only be eaten occasionally.

I have to agree with Felicity Cloake of the Guardian, who writes:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...how-britain-fell-out-of-love-with-pasta-sauce

What do you think? Do you make your own pasta sauces?
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Absolutely I agree with this article (except for wine winegar in the sauce?!)..the better way to eat a genuine tomato sauce it's to make it at home with your ingredients. I don't buy ready pasta sauce generally even if sometimes I did and then put in the pantry for emergencies. I dislike a lot ready pesto (canned or in jar it's the same) too salty! And the ones more light are with no garlic or parmesan inside, so no pesto..And ditto for bolognese ragu' sauce...Oh my..a mash with an odd sweet aftertaste..uneatable. And obviously too much preservatives inside.
I definitely prefer to make my sauces for pasta at home and refrigerate if/when leftover.
 
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Ah, tomato based pasta sauce. I make my own sauces. However, jarred pasta sauces are great for emergency food supplies. Especially when dealing with pesky hurricanes. I use the basics to make a few sauces. Onion, garlic, canned tomatoes and both dry and fresh basil. Sometimes I'll throw some finely diced carrots for sweetness.

For heavy tomato sauces, I'll brown off some tomato paste in the saute pan when the vegetables are soft. I push the vegetables to the side of the pan and drop the paste in the center. When it is "brown" I mix the vegetables together with the paste. Sometimes red wine goes in if I'm making Marinara sauce or Sunday Gravy. Sunday Gravy is basically a marinara that meats are cooked in, Italian sausages, braciole and meatballs. I just might throw a parm bone in this "gravy". The meats are removed and served separately while the "gravy" is served over pasta. I doubt there is a similar dish in Italy as it is a very heavy dish. Maybe in far northern Italy?

An alternative "Red" sauce that we make for lobster or crab ravioli is roasted red bell pepper sauce. I really don't like sun-dried tomatoes, so Karen makes oven-dried tomatoes, using fresh Roma tomatoes, dry basil, parmigiano-reggiano cheese, olive oil, black pepper and very light on salt as the cheese is salty. These are great for a pizza topping, quick pasta sauce, pesto ect.... There are also so many great pasta sauces without tomatoes.
 
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CraigC said:
For heavy tomato sauces, I'll brown off some tomato paste in the saute pan when the vegetables are soft. I push the vegetables to the side of the pan and drop the paste in the center. When it is "brown" I mix the vegetables together with the paste.
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I don't know this technique. Most interesting and something I will try. It sounds as if you are well versed in pasta sauces @CraigC!
 
CraigC said:
Ah, tomato based pasta sauce. I make my own sauces. However, jarred pasta sauces are great for emergency food supplies. Especially when dealing with pesky hurricanes. I use the basics to make a few sauces. Onion, garlic, canned tomatoes and both dry and fresh basil. Sometimes I'll throw some finely diced carrots for sweetness.
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I make my own pasta sauces too, and usually use fresh tomatoes rather than canned ones, although I do keep a couple of cans of tomatoes in the cupboard for emergencies. I can't remember the last time I bought a jar of commercially prepared pasta sauce, but it must have been 2005 or earlier :laugh: One of my exes used to like it; that's how I remember :D
 
Elawin said:
I make my own pasta sauces too, and usually use fresh tomatoes rather than canned ones, although I do keep a couple of cans of tomatoes in the cupboard for emergencies. I can't remember the last time I bought a jar of commercially prepared pasta sauce, but it must have been 2005 or earlier :laugh: One of my exes used to like it; that's how I remember :D
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Trying to find consistently good quality fresh tomatoes can be quite challenging. I find that canned tomatoes offer more consistency. Plus the two major brands we buy, seem to offer bogo deals, alternately every week.

We love to make homemade spinach pasta with a sweet onion sauce as another alternative to tomato based sauces.
 
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