The classic pomodoro is tomatoes, basil and good olive oil. The oil rounds it off but it isn’t what makes it taste like anything. Slow-cooked tomato does that. So I build the sauce properly and leave the oil out.
This is the dinner I cook when I can’t be bothered to think. Few ingredients, one pan.
Serves 4. Roughly 5g fat and 545 kcal per serving (with turkey).
Phase & care: White pasta and basil are P1. Cooked onion and lean turkey mince are P2 for me, so the turkey version is a phase-2 plate; the plain tomato-and-basil version is gentler. Passata keeps the skin and seeds out, which my list asks for.
Ingredients
- 400g spaghetti
- 2 cartons passata (or 800g very ripe fresh tomatoes, skinned and seeded)
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- Large handful basil
- Optional: 250g lean (5% or less) turkey mince
- Salt, pinch of sugar
Method
- If using turkey, dry-fry it in a non-stick pan until browned, no oil, set aside.
- Sweat the onion in a splash of water, then add the passata.
- Simmer the sauce 25-30 minutes until it darkens and thickens. This slow cook is where the flavour comes from. A pinch of sugar balances the acid.
- Stir the turkey back in if using. Season with salt.
- Cook the spaghetti, toss it through the sauce with a little pasta water, finish with torn basil.
Don’t rush the sauce. A watery 10-minute tomato sauce needs oil to taste like something. A 30-minute one doesn’t.
Stepan’s rule: Time is a substitute for fat. The longer a tomato sauce cooks, the more flavour it builds on its own, and the less it leans on oil to taste finished.
More like this
Also low fat and easy on a sore pancreas: the oyakodon and the chicken pho. The full system, with the fat budget in grams and all 75 recipes, is in the book.
Not medical advice. This recipe reflects one patient’s low-fat approach grounded in published guidance. Fat tolerance is individual. Check with your own healthcare team before changing your diet.