Three easy pasta sauce recipes

You needn’t have a Michelin star or be an expert in the kitchen to produce restaurant quality food. A good sauce works for all manner of meals and here Gousto share their top three – and they couldn’t be more simple.

The classic tomato sauce

The most versatile of all the sauces, works well with pretty much everything – and not a jar in sight!

Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2

Ingredients

• 1 table spoon olive oil
• 1 red onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 table spoon tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon dry oregano
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 125g chopped tomatoes
• 1 table spoon red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper to season

Method

1. Heat a pot with a drizzle of olive oil over a medium heat.

2. Once hot, add the diced red onion with a generous pinch of salt and cook for 5 min or until the onion has softened slightly but not coloured.

3. Once softened, add the chopped garlic and cook for a further 1 minute.

4. Add the tomato paste, dried oregano and 1 tsp of sugar and cook for 30 seconds.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes, a splash of water and the red wine vinegar, reduce the heat to medium low and cook for 10 min until a thick tomato sauce remains.

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The basic béchamel

Despite only having a few ingredients many are put off by making a béchamel due to horror stories of lumpy sauces. The key to this sauce is to keep on stirring and don’t stop until you’ve removed it from the heat.

Serves: 4
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Try this easy béchamel sauce

Quick and easy pesto

This sauce packs and punch and is the quickest of the bunch. Use a mini blender to speed up this recipe even more so, or if you decide to add in pine nuts.

Cooking time: 5-10 minutes
Serves: 2

• 40g fresh basil
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 80g hard Italian cheese such as parmesan
• 2-3 table spoons of olive oil
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to season
• 30g toasted pine nuts (optional)

Method:

1. Add the chopped garlic and basil to a mortar and grind them into a coarse paste with the pestle.

2. Grate the cheese directly into the mortar and continue to grind together to make a paste.

3. Drizzle over enough extra virgin olive oil to loosen the mix and add a squeeze of lemon juice.

4. Season with a pinch of salt and black pepper – this is your fresh pesto.

Or put all of the ingredients into a mini blender with your toasted pine nuts and hey pesto!

We’ve partnered with Gousto to offer readers £25 off a meal box containing three meals for two people. With 22 different recipes a week to choose from there’s plenty of choice for anyone. To try your first box for just £9.99 click here

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