There's truly nothing more comforting than a big bowl of pasta and a top food writer has claimed only three ingredients are needed to make a memorable tomato sauce.
It's no surprise that many people opt for sauces out of a jar to save on time and effort, but the truth is many of these jars are jam-packed with sugar and additives and can cost more than the ingredients themselves, reports the Mirror.
According to Italian-American food expert Marcella Hazan, a good pasta sauce is so simple and economical.
The writer, who died in 2013, was born in Cesenatico, Italy, in 1924 and went on to open a New York cookery school and write hugely respected cookbooks. So what she says goes when it comes to a good old pasta sauce.
In her book, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella advises using only three ingredients in tomato sauce: tinned tomatoes, an onion and a generous knob butter for a 1992 recipe still revered by food writers and cooks alike.
Marcella's precise instructions are to put half a peeled onion into a pot with butter and tinned tomatoes and to leave it all to simmer for 45 minutes.
Food publication Delish dubbed the sauce "the best in the world," while husband Victor commented: "Marcella was a genius when it came to taste. She had an immediate understanding about how flavour affects a dish.
"She asked herself, 'Why chop an onion? Why saute? I'm going to put the onion, tomato, and butter together and forget about it'."
"No other preparation is more successful in delivering the prodigious satisfactions of Italian cooking than a competently executed sauce with tomatoes," Marcella says in her book.
Her sauce is very rich. Others favour different techniques. Jamie Oliver adds four cloves of garlic and garnishes with fresh basil, while scores of top chefs use various herbs and oils and other trickery to elevate their dishes. Anchovies are also good.
Food writer Felicity Cloake suggests the more classic use of olive oil in tomato sauce. She also puts in a pinch of sugar and some red wine vinegar.
For more stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
