Denis Red Sauce v3.1

This recipe is made of four main parts.

1. The Cooked Red Sauce which I usually batch cook and freeze in portions
2. The Raw Fresh Herbs, Spices and Oils are added raw on top of the dish
3. The Boiled Wholemeal Brown Pasta prepared just before the meal
4. The Roasted Vegetables (optional but absolutely a real fine final touch)

Red Sauce

I bought this large pot which is really meant for cooking seasonal fruit jam in large quantities. I found it in second hand shop looking new as it was probably used once every five years. Guess how much i paid for it? £5.00.

I used to chop everything by hand. Then, my ex-dear ex, bought me a food processor. Lately I have discovered frozen already chopped vegetables.  

Fresh is better than Frozen. Frozen is better than Tinned. 

Tinned is better than nothing.

The following quantities are meant for batch cooking and freezing.
This is the list of what goes in the sauce and in the pot:

1. Sieved tomatoes passata (8 cartons Tesco brand)
2. Tomatoes (20 fresh and diced or 4 bags of already diced ASDA frozen diced tomatoes)
3. Red Lentils (2 Cups to thicken)
4. Red peppers (12 sliced)
5. Orange sweet potatoes (5 medium to be grated finely Tesco)
6. Onions (8 fresh and diced or 1 bag of Asda frozen onions)
7. Carrots (8 grated finely or frozen already sliced)
8. Fresh boiled beetroot (4 grated or finely sliced)
9. Mushrooms (fresh or 3 bags of Asda frozen mushrooms)
10. Dry mushrooms (only if on sale)
11. Green peas (1Kg)

Separately in another pot I cook the turkey meat mince with the wine and later add this to the Red Sauce once it is nice and thick, but still juicy.

12. 2kg Turkey whole lean breasts (minced at home) or alternatively 2Kg of chicken lean breasts.
13. Red Wine (one 75cl bottle, usually French)

I throw the ingredients in my large pot, in the same order as are shown above, and start cooking and stirring. The thicker the sauce becomes the more often I need to stir the sauce.

I add no water, no oils, no salt and no herbs nor spices at this stage. 
I do stir frequently to avoid burning the bottom of the pan and cook until sauce is nice and thick, but still juicy. This might take between one and two hours. You may try multitasking by preparing the following...

Fresh Herbs, Spices and Oils

In earlier versions of this recipe, a few years back, I used to add herbs, spices and garlic to the red sauce pot and cook all together. In recent years I have discovered though the pleasure of “fresh or frozen” raw spices, herbs and garlic added at the end. 

Fresh herbs have a character that I believe now the cooking can convert into other.  As explained in my Tips and Tricks blog, I do believe in freezing fresh herbs too. If I have time I leave them (in the list below: 1 to 7) to marinade in extra virgin olive oil for one or two hours:

1. Red chillies
2. Basil
3. Rosemary
4. Garlic (finely grated)
5. Sage
6. Tarragon
7. Oregano
8. Sun dried Tomatoes (chopped)
9. Green olives (halved)
10. Extra virgin olive oil
11. Avocado Oil
12. Red onions (sliced and raw)
13. King Prawns (Asda cooked and peeled king prawns)

Pasta

I use exclusively brown pasta . I fill a medium/large pot with plenty of hot water (the pasta will absorb half of the water so make sure there is plenty of it in the pot). Bring to boil. Set your alarm clock to 8-9 min. max (even if box says 12 minutes - Italian pasta should never be over cooked and 12 min. are far too many to my opinion). 
Throw the pasta in the boiling water and cook until alarm goes off. Drain off immediately all the water and stir well with extra virgin olive oil. Stir again after 10 min.. Cover (after 10 min.) and keep in the fridge for no more than two days. Do not mix pasta with sauce until just before consumption.

Finally all comes together

Pasta, red sauce, fresh herbs, spices and oils and optionally some roasted aubergines, red peppers or mushrooms come together. If any of these parts are added cold, I put all in a plastic bowl and microwave to heat up. 

 

Freezing the red sauce in portions

I use resealable freezer bags to divide my batch cooked sauce into individual portions. I transfer the sauce into each bag using a ladle while sauce is still piping hot and still simmering to avoid new bacteria building up while cooling down. I leave bags to cool down on my worktop for a couple of hours and before transferring them in the freezer, I wrap each bag inside a light sheet of tissue paper which avoids frozen bags sticking to each other. 

Check your freezer instructions for speeding up the freezing of non-frozen food. I have a Fast Freezing button I leave on overnight until the whole batch is properly rock solid frozen and well hibernated. My freezer is a high end freezer which allows to keep food frozen food safely for over three months.


Why do I not buy already minced meats

I stopped buying already minced meats since I noticed that the amount of saturated fats in already minced meats (processed meats) is always away too high in comparison to lean meats. Saturated fats are a poison, a slow poison causing a variety of problems and diseases to our body. 

Food should not harm, but nourish body and mind.