Classic French tomato sauce (sauce tomate)

Melt the butter over medium to high heat, add the bacon and cook gently about a minute without colouring.

Add the onion, carrot and a bit of garlic and cook about two minutes with very light colour.

Lower the heat, add the flour and cook a blond roux on very low heat about three minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add the tomato paste and cook very gently a good minute.

Raise the heat and add the stock bit by bit, bringing it to a light boil.

Add the San Marzano tomatoes, the final aromatics, a teaspoon of sugar, salt and pepper.

Cook down slowly, partly covered: typically an hour, or 30 minutes for a quick home version; here about 40 minutes on the stove.

Variation: cook it in the oven instead, the pan placed in at 160 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes.

Pass the sauce through a sieve, pressing the vegetables only a little at the end.

Variation: for a soup, serve the sauce as is with butter, or blend it with the thyme and bay leaf removed and the bacon kept for a rustic farmhouse soup, thinned with a bit more stock and finished with butter.