This tomato sauce recipe can be made either tangy or sweet, depending on your choice of vinegar.

Published in 2012 in “The Downstairs Cookbook. Recipes from a 1920’s Kitchen” (originally published as The Margaret Powell Cookery Book in 1970).

Ingredients

1 lb or 480gm of tomatoes – chopped

1 small onion – chopped

2oz or 60gm of diced ham

4 teaspoons of butter

1 bay leaf

cayenne pepper

pinch of salt

6 teaspoons vinegar (I used white wine vinegar for a tangy sauce but a sweet balsamic vinegar would also be very nice)

2 1/2 Australian/UK tablespoons or 3 US tablespoons of corn flour (known as corn starch in the US)

Method

Put the tomatoes, onions, ham and seasonings in a saucepan and cook over a gentle heat for 5 minutes.

Add the vinegar and simmer until all the ingredients are completley softened.

Turn off the heat and either rub through a coarse seive or remove thebay leaf and blitz in a blender.

Return the mix to the saucepan if you removed it :)

Mix the corn flour to a paste with some water and add to the cooked mixture.

Stir over a low heat until thick.

Serve with meat or use in a recipe that calls for tomato sauce.