A sauce of simplicity

I made this for dinner recently as a side for my Roast Chicken in Butter Sauce. Each time I make a tomato sauce, it’s different. It’s a wondrous, organic, changing thing and can taste so different each time, redolent of memories from the past, spag bol when I was a kid, bruschetta on my first Italian holiday, a wintry snack when I lived in Sardegna.

Whatever I did tonight, it worked beautifully; it was the perfect sauce, and so pretty too when I served it, as the cherry tomatoes remain delightfully whole for the most part. Sorry I didn’t take a picture - but I served linguine with cherry tomato sauce on the side with some soft, buttery roast chicken and a little rocket and grana padano. Here’s the cherry tomato sauce, and it serves 3-4.

What you need

• 300g cherry tomatoes
• 1 big fat clove of garlic
• Tsp olive oil
• Handful of: Lemon Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary and Parsley
• Tsp Fresh Cream (optional)
• Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper

Method:

• Warm up the olive oil in a pan over a medium heat. Throw in all the cherry tomatoes, and put a lid on the pan. Turn down to a low heat, and leave them to steam like this for 10 minutes.

• Add the lemon oregano, thyme and rosemary, and squeeze in the clove of garlic. Add salt & pepper, stir, and put the lid on for another 5-7 minutes. You will see when the tomatoes are cooked - they will split and bubble and ooze.

• Add a tsp of fresh cream and a good handful of chopped parsley. Add more salt and pepper to taste.

To serve:

I served it with linguine; try with spaghetti, simple and clean, with a fresh green salad, and have an espresso afterwards.

We all have our own version of tomato sauce, we all use secret shortcuts (I know a few fans of the spoonful of sugar method). This one is so simple, and so lovely. Try it.

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1. Cornucopia Recipe: White Bean and Roast Mediterranean Vegetable Pie with Basil Mash
2. Wednesday Wind-down: Very Simple Chicken
3. Ingredient of the Week, Bread: Country Tomato Pie