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Finely chop the onion and garlic. Grate the courgettes, carrot and tomatoes.
In a large pan add half the olive oil, the onion, carrots, garlic and chilli (if using). Cook over a medium heat for around 7 mins until the onions and carrots are softened.
Add the courgette/zucchini and the grated tomatoes. Mix well.
Cook for around 30mins. The courgette should start to collapse releasing all its juices, which you want to slowly cook off.
Add in the bay leaf. Then, turn the heat down and sloooooowly cook. You want to caramelise the mixture, creating layers of flavour by teasing out all the natural sweetness of the vegetables.
After around 20 mins, remove the bay leaf. It gives an extra layer of flavour, but more than that it turns into a slightly unpleasant & overpowering note.
Keep cooking down the vegetables, maybe giving them an extra bit of help by bashing them a bit with a potato masher or a wooden spoon to help them disintegrate.
Keep scraping down the pan, you want this to neaaaaarly catch, but not quite.
After another 20 - 30 mins, depending on how juicy your tomatoes and courgettes were, you should have a lush, squishy, delicious paste.
Add some salt to taste and you're done!