This is the heavy flavorful sauce that should be served with red meats; steaks, ribs, roulades! It may seem like a daunting task but once you’ve mastered it, you won’t be able to eat your meat without it. Enjoy!

This is my favorite sauce for pastas, pizzas, as a sandwich spread, in burgers, pretty much anything. Enjoy!

Yield 2 L
INGREDIENTS
50g Pork Fat / Chicken skin (alternative)
OR
50ml Pure Olive Oil
25-50g garlic cloves, sliced OR crushed OR finely chopped
125g Onion, diced
125g Carrot, diced
125g Celery Stock, diced (1/4 if using Indian Celery)
2kg Tomatoes; skinned, deseeded and coarsely chopped
OR
2kg Canned Tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1L Tomato Puree
100g Tomato Paste
200g Ham bones or browned pork bones
OR
200g chicken carcass
100ml Tomato Ketchup
2nos. Red dried chillies
1 Bay Leaf
1/4 tsp Dried Thyme
1/4 tsp Dried Rosemary
1 tbsp Mixed Herbs
1/2 tsp Fresh Ground Pepper
Pinch of sugar and salt to taste

To make a pure vegetarian version omit all the non-veg items, simple! Although I’d advice to use a seasoning cube (maggie) much to my distaste, but it does add flavour!

PROCEDURE
1. Render the pork fat in a heavy saucepan, do not brown OR the chicken skin, do not burn OR just add the olive oil.
2. Add the garlic and let it sweat for a few minutes, don’t burn the garlic.
3. Add red chillies, onions and carrots and sweat for a few minutes till onion is translucent, again do not burn.
4. Add tomatoes, puree, paste, ketchup, ham bones, herbs, sugar and salt, bring to a boil and simmer on low heat for 1.5-2 hours.
5. Remove bones, chillies, use a hand held processor and blend to desired consistency; smooth for pizza, chunky for pastas.
6. Adjust seasoning, herbs and sugar, it should taste just right, hint of spice, sour and sweet; the taste should be to YOUR liking.

TRICKS
1. To deseed the tomatoes, cut a 'plus sign' on the top ends of the tomatoes, making slight incisions.
2. Put them in boiling water till the skin starts to bubble, remove and refresh in ice water to stop cooking.
3. Peel off the skin, cut the tomatoes on quarts and remove all seeds and 'white parts', keep all of the above.
4. Use a sieve and a ladle to press out all of the liquid, use this in the sauce its highly flavored.

VARIATIONS 
1. Add fresh chopped Basil and/or fresh chopped Parsley for added flavour.
2. Add sauteed chopped mushrooms for the Italian variation along with the above.
3. Meat Sauce - Brown a mixture of Beef & Pork mince (1kg) or only either one of the two meats. Add 250ml of Red Wine, 2L of the Tomato Sauce, 1L of brown stock, dried Parsley, Basil and Oregano for taste and simmer uncovered for 1 hour till most of the excess liquid has evaporated.  
4. Tomato Creme Sauce - Use butter instead of Olive oil or rendered fat in the basic recipe. Add 1 cup of Cream per liter of sauce, bring to a simmer and serve.