Marinara Sauce

 

Marinara Sauce is a simple recipe when done in it’s basic traditional way. I’ve tried a lot of different ways to do this great sauce and have wound up settling on this recipe. The size of this batch can be reduced to just what you may need for just one meal. Or, you might want to make as much as we do and put it up in zip lock bags in the freezer. Or, can it. So it will be waiting for you in the pantry.

 

Ingredients

 

• Good extra virgin olive oil
• Onions-2 small or 1 medium sized, chopped
• Chopped garlic 4-6 cloves depends on the size
• Salt and black pepper
• Pinch of crushed red pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley or ½ cup dried
• ½ cup chopped fresh basil or ¼ cup dried
• 1 1/2 cup red wine – we use chianti
• 4-28oz. cans good Roma (aka plum) tomatoes,imported from Italy and with the fewest ingredients. ( we use Cento brand San Marzano)  If you can find them diced that’s good. If they are whole you are going to have to put them in a bowl and crush them by hand or pulse them, a little!, in the blender, in batches.

 

 

 

 

How to Make Basic Tomato Sauce AKA Marinara Sauce

Put a medium sized stock pot on medium high. Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom.
Then the onions. Cook for about 3 minutes stirring occasionally or until they  just begin to become translucent. Then add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes. Don’t let them brown.

 

Now add everything else except the tomatoes. Stir it all together and let it cook for a minute more.

Put in the tomatoes and stir it up. Add the wine. When it starts to simmer lower the heat to med. low. You need to stir it up about every 10 minutes to keep it from sticking and burning on the bottom. Use a wooden spoon or a Teflon pancake flipper and drag it across the bottom to get all the solids that want to stick there mixed up into the sauce.

 

Cook it! 

How long? Some cook it for just 20 minutes to a half hour after it comes up to a simmer. We like an hour and a half but you could cook it as long as you want depending on how smooth you want the texture.

 

It’ll last in the fridge at least 3 weeks and in the freezer, in zip lock bags, at least 6 months. Just put enough in a zip lock so the bag stays kinda thin and let it freeze laying flat. Then when you want to use it, just can break off only what you need at the time.

 

Canning your Marinara sauce

 

A new twist on this. Now we double the above recipe and can the finished sauce in seven, one quart, wide mouth mason jars. Me, canning, who’d a thunk it. Yeah, it’s a little more work but it’s worth it. We put the finished sauce in the jars and put them in a pot of water with enough to cover the jars by an inch. Boil for a half hour after the water comes up to a fast boil. Then Put them on a towel covered area of the counter top and let them rest there overnight.

 

 

Then it’s easy to grab a jar off the shelf, spoon out what you need and if there is any still in the jar just put it in the fridge.

Gammy was a country girl who grew up on a farm. She taught this Jersey boy how to can the marinara sauce. 

You will use it for lots of good recipes like

Chicken Parmesan

Steak Pizzaiola

Chicken Cacciatore 

Pizza

 Lasagna

And on and on

Bon Appetit!

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