I'm sure everyone has their favourite recipe but it's summer in Australia when all the best ingredients for a great pasta sauce are plentiful, ripe and reasonably priced. I take advantage and buy large quantities of ripe roma tomatoes, eggplant (aubergine), red capsicum (bell/sweet peppers), zucchini, chilli, onion, mushrooms and whatever else is on offer. I'm lucky to have a grower who comes to my door selling ropes of locally grown garlic and a neighbour who shares the herbs from her amazing garden.
I halve the tomatoes and place them skin down in roasting tins. On top of the tomatoes I place thin slices of eggplant and zucchini. I use about 6 cloves of garlic, one red chilli and one large onion per pan and scatter the crushed garlic and sliced onion and chilli amongst the other vegetables. One large red capsicum is then seeded, cut into large chunks and placed skin side up on top. I drizzle a good amount of olive oil over the mix. Then add some ground sea salt and black pepper. The pans go into a medium oven for 30-40 minutes or until the capsicum is charred.
Once cooked I allow things to cool for a bit and then process everything in a blender or food processor. I add any herbs I have (chopped) at the time of blending.
The amazing sauce that results is then divided into containers for freezing in quantities that are sufficient to make a pasta meal (with chicken/meatballs or whatever) for four.
Doing this means that I always have a quick meal and a taste of the Australian summer in my freezer!