The recipe is sort of a mishmash of influences. It derives from an ancestral recipe, but the use of butter comes from Marcella Hazan, and the bouillon powder from Hong Kong influence. It’s a salt and MSG umami bomb, what’s not to like?

This takes me less time than to boil the pasta:

Half an onion, minced Knob of butter 1 L of a good passata Tablespoon of chicken bouillon powder Olive oil to taste Salt, pepper, chili flakes to taste

Sauté the onion in butter until translucent. Add in the passata and bouillon powder. Add olive oil and seasonings to taste. That’s it.

That’s a really good question. Part of the problem, of course, is that the game is rigged: consider how difficult it is to buy food that doesn’t feed the Nestle war chest.

As a society, I think there are moves in the right direction - I just stumbled across something called Community Wealth Building, which is very cool, for example.

But as a private individual? That’s harder. I’d love it if there were an Amazon equivalent out there that sourced exclusively from worker owned co-ops, or at least unionized businesses, but as it is, I’m coming up dry…