I like to make a simple Napoli style tomato sauce for  a simple and quick pasta dish when I don’t have much time or if I’m too tired after a hard day at work to slog in the kitchen.  To prepare this sauce couldn’t be easier. For two people you need:

Of course you can alter the quantities to suit your taste.

What we want to do is to flavour the oil so first step is heat the oil in a saucepan and pop in the sliced garlic. The trick here is not to  have the oil too hot we don’t want to brown the garlic just lightly sizzle it so all the flavour of the garlic is infused into the oil.

When the garlic has sizzled for around a minute throw in the peeled tomatoes. I tend to always used plum peeled and mash them down as some cans of chopped tomatoes can have green unripened bits in them (as you make this sauce more regularly try different brands including supermarket’s own which are good as well ).

Once the tomatoes are added bring up to simmer and gently let it slowly bubble away from 10 to 15 minutes adding in your seasoning at the end.

Note: The longer you simmer the more it will reduce so keep an eye you don’t want it too thick.  As  tomatoes vary in thickness from the can you may need to add  a little  tomato paste if the tomatoes are a bit watery.

And that’s it – a simple Napoli tomato sauce from prep to plate in around 20 mins!

I usually start to prepare this sauce once I put the water for pasta on the stove.  Remember to allow plenty of water for your pasta and when it’s ready and drained add a knob of butter and a little of the prepared napoli sauce  stir everything before plating  the pasta. Then top the pasta with the remainder of sauce.  For added flavour and visual chop some fresh basil on top or freshly grated Parmesan (the good stuff of course).

Watch out for my next recipe – Amatriciana sauce!