Bookham Cheese

Gold Award at 2007 Great Taste Awards Pasta Sauces – NO ADDED SUGAR, WE PROMISE!

Claire Bookham spent seven years living in Italy and is very exacting when it comes to getting a sauce just right. It has to be exactly “come fa’ la mamma”, but with no added sugar and entirely devoid of artificial flavourings or preservatives. “OK then”, say the rest of us, followed by much heavy sighing.So anyway, we’ve done all the hard work for you, slowly and lovingly infusing the tastiest Sicilian tomatoes, with a delicate blend of olive oil, garlic, onions and basil (with pureed carrot for added sweetness). We source all our fresh herbs and spices as far as possible from local producers and according to season.

Our current range of pasta sauces Include:

• Tangy Tomato
• Tangy Mushroom
• Spicy Tomato
• Spicy Tomato & Black Olive

Truly Tomato Pasta Sauce: 
One of our top-sellers and winner of a bronze medal at The Great Taste Awards in 2005, this no-nonsense pasta sauce is entirely free from artificial flavourings or preservatives. We’ve done all the hard work for you, slowly and lovingly (“proprio come fa’ la mamma”) infusing the tastiest Sicilian tomatoes with a delicate blend of olive oil, garlic, onions and basil (with pureed carrot for added sweetness - absolutely no sugar, we promise!). Although the perfect base for a bolognaise, this sauce is so tasty that some of our customers can’t wait to get it onto pasta and simply mop it up with crusty bread instead! Next thing we know, they’re telling us they can speak fluent Italian (must be all that Sangiovese they wash it down with).

Truly Mushroom Pasta Sauce:  
Something Mr. Toni, our sauce-maker with Roman forbears, wanted  to do, using an interesting melee of fresh mushrooms, sourced locally of course (no pun intended). So, we said in a rather bored voice “Oh, go on then” and so he did and actually, it does sell rather well, so why not try it? (Maybe even with lardons – that’s tiny cubes of  bacon to you and me).

Spicy Tomato Pasta Sauce - 
Gold Medal Winner at The Great Taste Awards 2007: 

As you’d expect, this is based on our Tangy Tomato Sauce, only with fresh red chillies and peppers for a bit of a kick. Nothing too fiery, mind, but just enough if you fancy doing Penne all’Arrabbiata. Incidentally, “arrabbiato” in Italian means angry, which incidentally, our sauce-maker normally is. Perhaps we should call him Mr.Angry from now on.
 

Spicy Tomato & Black Olive Sauce:
No explanation necessary here. It does exactly what it says on the jar. But if you’re feeling really sophisticated, you could turn this into your very own Marinara Sauce, by adding some anchovies and a tin of tuna, or any type of seafood for that matter, if you want to recreate a truly Mediterranean feel.

How to eat our pasta sauces:

Whilst all our sauces can be enjoyed just as they are, we do know that many of our customers enjoy adapting them to suit their personal taste, “customising” them with their own “add-ons”, transforming them into a triumphant Arrabbiata, Marinara or Bolognaise. However, we also know that the less ambitious of our Farmers’ Market customers cannot always wait to get our sauce onto their pasta (theirs or ours, I now wonder) and simply mop it up with crusty bread instead. Who are we to judge what a person gets up to in the comfort of their own home – we’re not the Pasta Police, are we?