Homemade tomato pasta sauce

An adaptation of a couple of recipes I found online. A work in progress, but the initial result is promising:

Ingredients:

about 1.5 kg ripe tomatoes (the riper the better)
1 onion, diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 pepper, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
About 200-300ml tomato juice (optional)
Fresh basil to taste, shredded/torn up
1 tbsp or so Provencal herb mix
Pepper
Some salt to taste
1/3 cup red wine
2-3 bay leaves
1-2 full stalks celery - don't cut them up!
2 small cans tomato paste (or maybe only 1, depending on taste. Should be around 2 tbsp or so of tomato paste)

For the tomatoes, score them at the stalk end and then drop them into boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes to loosen the skin. Peel and core them, then dice them roughly. If you want, leave one or two intact.

Add onion, garlic, peppers and carrots to a biggish pot and cook for around 5 minutes until the onion is soft. Then add your tomatoes, as well as the tomato juice, basil, herbs and spices and red wine, mix in, then add the celery and bay leaves.

Cook for 1-2 hours on a very low heat, add the small tins of tomato paste and cook for another 1-2 hours (I cooked mine for 1 and 1, but varying recipes say 30 mins all the way up to 2 hours. Take your choice).

When it's all ready, remove the bay leaves and celery and leave to cool, then freeze or serve with pasta. Your choice.

Mulligatawny soup

I guess this is an Anglo-Indian recipe that came about under the British Raj. It raises some interesting cultural questions, but it also works well as a relatively quick and simple dish. This one is adapted somewhat from the Wanderlust Kitchen's recipe. Good stuff all told.

Ingredients:

1 biggish onion, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 chilli or to taste, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, minced
2 cm or so ginger, diced
1 biggish or 2 small apples, peeled, cored, diced
1 or 2 400g tins tomatoes, depending on taste
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp Provencal herbs (or thyme)
1/4 tsp cardamon
Pepper to taste
2/3 cup red lentils (uncooked)
1 litre chicken stock
1 can coconut milk
Spring onions and coriander to serve

Cook onion, carrot and chilli for 5 min or until onion is soft. Add garlic, ginger, apples, and tomato and cook for a few minutes, then add spices and mix in. Add lentils and stock, bring to boil and then cook for 30 minutes on low heat. Once done, add coconut milk, heat once more, then serve with spring onions and/or coriander. Add bread of your choice too.