Homemade tomato sauce for babies, toddlers and the whole family

It is my right to revisit posts of yore, especially when I've changed the cooking method.  This is my recipe for a basic tomato sauce which is great for loads of uses.  When I blogged about this before, I wasn't spending as much time on my posts and it's a long way back.  I was also really lazy and rarely took pictures (not that my pictures here are fabulous.  Photographing a sauce is tricky.)  I also wanted to review, for my own benefit as much as anyone, just how many ways I use this sauce and in how many recipes (I know it's a lot).

Slow Cooked Tomato Sauce - makes loads but freezes well

Ingredients

4 tins of tomatoes (or use a pack of passata and some tomatoes)
1-2 onions (optional)
4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled
2 carrots, chopped up finely
2 red orange or yellow peppers (capsicums), frozen ones are fine
A sprig of rosemary

Method

Bung all of the ingredients into the slow cooker.

Put on high and let it bubble away for a good few hours, think a good 4-6 (remember a slow cooker only uses as much energy as a lightbulb).  Towards the end of cooking, if liked, use a spoon to prop the lid up slightly to let out some steam, this helps to thicken the sauce.

Puree the sauce in a blender.  Freezes fantastically.

Be assured that the quantities and combinations are up to you.  No onions?  Miss them out.  Fancy more garlic?  Stick it in.  Want something more spanish?  Why not use some paprika?  It's up to you although I would say it's a great idea to have this as a fairly simple "base" and add flavouring when you cook.

How can you use it?  Here's my list of ways:

1.  As a simple tomato sauce with pasta.  Just heat it up, mix it in to cooked pasta and add cheese if liked.  Great for babies just starting on finger foods (lovely and messy!)

2.  Extend that pasta possibility by adding prawns or tuna.

3.  Thin it down and make a tasty soup

4.  Chicken pasta bake

5.  Alternatively mix it with cooked bacon and cooked chilli for pasta amitriciana.

6.  Pizza, just make sure you make the sauce good and thick.

7.  Vegetarian Lasagne

8.  Meatballs (although I should say I might review this recipe soon, that batch does not look like my best.)

9.  Prawn pasta bake

10.  Prawn stew