Country ketchup

Method

1 Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over a lowish heat, add the onion, celery and carrot and gently fry for about 20 minutes until relaxed and lightly coloured, stirring now and again. Add the garlic and bay leaf and cook for a few minutes longer. Halve 1kg of the tomatoes and add to the pan, then cover and cook for 20 minutes until they have softened. Liquidise the contents of the pan, discarding the bay leaf, and pass through a sieve back into a clean saucepan.

2 At the same time, bring a medium-size pan of water to the boil, cut out a cone from the top of each of the remaining tomatoes to remove the core, plunge them into the boiling water for about 20 seconds and then into cold water. Slip off the skins and chop quite finely. Add these along with the rest of the ingredients to the pan, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until the sauce has thickened a little. Pour it into jars while hot, seal and leave to cool. Store in the fridge for up to three months and eat relatively soon after opening.