Based on the basic toamto sauce recipe. The addition of fennel is great if you are serving with pork or seafood - or both. Simple addition of fennel seeds at the start leads to a rich background aniseed flavour.

Uses the recipes for garlic and onion oil presented elsewhere on this site.

25 g butter
2 teaspoons of fennel seed
1 tablespoon of onion oil
1 tablespoon garlic oil
2 x 440 g cans of chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • Melt the butter in a flat-bottomed saucepan.
  • Add the onion and garlic oils.
  • Add the fennel seeds, cook for 2 minutes.
  • Add in the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper.
  • Cook for 15 - 20 minutes for a fresh light sauce, leave for longer to achieve a deeper richer flavour.