At times we all need a quick sauce for pasta – after movies or a show when no-one feels like going out.  Tomatoes are extraordinarily healthy and we should all try and eat a portion on a daily basis. The Italian diet is one of the healthiest in the world, second only to the Costa Rican and it won’t do us any harm to take a leaf out of their book. Pasta and tomato sauce is legendary and with grated parmesan and good extra virgin olive oil, it is a meal fit for a king. The recipe below is, essentially, for fresh tomatoes but if you have some really good bottled ones, feel free to use them.

Below, 10 reasons why you should eat more tomatoes,courtesy of WebMed.

• Tomatoes contain all four major carotenoids: alpha- and beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene and whilst they may have  individual benefits, they also have synergy as a group (ie they interact to provide health benefits).
• Tomatoes contain awesome amounts of lycopene, thought to have the highest antioxidant activity of all the carotenoids.
• Tomatoes and broccoli have synergy that may help reduce the risk of prostate cancer – one study showed that prostate tumours grew much more slowly in rats that were fed both tomato and broccoli powder than in rats given lycopene as a supplement or fed just the broccoli or tomato powder alone.
• A diet rich in tomato-based products may help reduce the risk of pancreatic cancer, according to a study from the The University of Montreal who found that lycopene (provided mainly by tomatoes) was linked to a 31% reduction in pancreatic cancer risk between men with the highest and lowest intakes of this carotenoid.
• Tomatoes contain all 3 high-powered antioxidants: beta-carotene (which has vitamin A activity in the body), vitamin E and vitamin C. ………………. a third or us get too little vitamin C and almost half get too little vitamin A.
• Tomatoes are rich in potassium, a mineral most of us don’t get enough of …..a cup of tomato juice contains 534 milligrams of potassium, and ½ cup of tomato sauce has 454 milligrams of it.
• When tomatoes are eaten along with healthier fats, like avocado or olive oil, the body’s absorption of the carotenoid phytochemicals in tomatoes can increase by 2 to 15 times, according to a study from Ohio State University.
• Tomatoes are a big part of the famously healthy Mediterranean diet …. many Mediterranean dishes and recipes call for tomatoes or tomato paste or sauce ….recent studies, including one from The University of Athens Medical School, have found that people who most closely follow the Mediterranean diet have lower death rates from heart disease and cancer – researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health, who followed more than 39,000 women for seven years, found that consumption of oil- and tomato-based products — particularly tomato and pizza sauce — was associated with cardiovascular benefits.
• When breastfeeding moms eat tomato products, it increases the concentration of lycopenein their breast milk and in this case, cooked tomatoes are  best … also found that eating tomato products like tomato sauce increased concentrations of lycopene in breast milk more than eating fresh tomatoes did.
• Tomato peels contribute a high concentration of the carotenoids found in tomatoes. The amount of carotenoids absorbed by human intestinal cells was much greater with tomato paste enriched with tomato peels compared to tomato paste without peels, according to a study from Marseille, France … tomato skin also holds most of the flavonols (another family of phytochemicals that includes quercetin and kaempferol) as well. So to maximize the health propertiesof tomatoes, don’t peel them if you can help it!

Ingredients

• 500 g tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and chopped
• 50 g basil, ripped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled – I simply cook them with the sauce and discard it (or give it to someone who likes it)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Extra virgin olive oil

Method

• Pour a little oil into a saucepan, quick fry the tomatoes, garlic and basil on medium heat and stir until everything has “melted” together to form a thick sauce – remove garlic and set aside.
• Continue to stir occasionally for about 10 minutes until the sauce is ready.
• Season the sauce with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
• Serve with a swirl of oil and top with parmesan.
• The important thing is that you don’t add water to the fresh tomatoes and continue frying until the sauce has thickened.
• To vary you could add anchovies, capers, olives or some freshly chopped chillies