Often, cooking is seen as a quick means to an end. You’re hungry, you need a meal, you cook something, you eat. But in times like these, as well as any other time when you need self-care in the form of cooking, something like a tasty pasta sauce is just the ticket.

A tomato sauce is one of those things, for me, that can be done in many ways but what matters, is how much you enjoy it. Stick some music on and honestly, this is one of those recipes that you can cook and nurse for a long time or have done in less than half an hour.

There’s something to be said for the fine dicing of the onions, the roasting and caramelisation of the garlic, the bursting tomatoes that give it that depth of flavour, and the finishing touch of crispy chickpeas. Trust me, they work so well here. If you want to omit carbs here, you can knock up some courgetti but wholewheat spaghetti works great here.

Ingredients

Whole punnet of cherry plum tomatoes or a few vines of tomatoes
3 medium sized tomatoes
1 white onion
4 cloves of garlic
Rind of 1 lemon
Fresh basil
Dried oregano
Dried thyme
Flaky salt
Tomato puree
½ tsp sugar
Fresh rosemary (dried is fine too)
1 can of chickpeas
Wholewheat spaghetti
Optional: 2 anchovies
Optional: Dried chilli flakes
Optional: Splash of red wine

1.    Preheat your oven to 180C and place the tomatoes in a baking dish along with the whole cloves of garlic. Feel free to use more or less, I’m a garlic fiend so the more the merrier. Dress in olive oil, salt, pepper and some dried thyme then place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the tomato skins have started to blister.

2.    I like the get the chickpea garnish ready first so drain one can of chickpeas and lay out onto some kitchen paper to absorb any excess moisture. Place a sheet on top and gently roll the chickpeas underneath, some of the skins will separate but that’s alright. Heat some olive oil in a pan and whilst that’s gently heating up, peel half a lemon into wide chunks. Once you have a little stack of lemon peel chunks, line them up and slice very finely into strips.

3.    Fry the lemon peel in the hot oil but watch carefully as they will be done quickly. We want the oil to be flavoured slightly with the fresh lemon.

4.    Once the lemon peel is cooked to a nice golden brown, remove and place on a paper towel.

5.    Place the chickpeas in the pan and fry on a medium heat for 10 minutes until they’re nice and crispy. Season with some finely chopped fresh rosemary and flaky salt once removed from the pan.

6.    Time to prepare the base of the sauce. Put your finely diced onion into a pan with some olive oil and allow to go soft.

7.    At this point, the tomatoes and garlic should be done. Keep the oven on, turn down to 100C and keep the chickpeas in there to keep warm. Add the tomatoes to the pan and squeeze out the caramelised garlic from its skin, chop roughly on a board and add to the pan too.

8.    Put your water onto boil for the pasta and if using, put in the chilli flakes and a couple of anchovies into the tomato sauce. Use the back of your spoon to press them into the mixture and they’ll dissolve leaving a nice salty kick to your sauce.

9.    Season with dried oregano, salt, pepper and a dash of sugar then cover with a lid and leave to simmer. If using, add a generous glug of red wine to the sauce at this point too.

10.  Put as much spaghetti on to boil as needed and as it starts to cook down, add the tomato puree and a few spoonful’s of the pasta water to your sauce as this’ll help to loosen it up.

11.  Once the sauce has reached your desired consistency and the pasta is cooked, add the pasta to the sauce and gently fold in. Add some more pasta water if you like a looser sauce and finish with fresh basil.

12. Plate up, add the crispy chickpeas and lemon peel on the top and bon appetit.

[Cover Photo by Krista Stucchio on Unsplash]