I am a HUGE fan of marinara sauce. I would put it on everything I eat, if it wasn't for the looks people give me. I'm talking about everything, from breads to veggies. I can't get enough of it, it's so good!!!
There are plenty of decent jarred marinara sauces out there, but nothing beats some good old fashion homemade marinara sauce. The recipe I've been using for a while now is real simple and mmm mmm good.
I start off with two can of tomato paste, one can of tomato sauce, and if I'm feeling up to it, about three medium tomatoes, if not I use one can of diced tomatoes, including the liquid. If you decide to use fresh tomatoes, you have to get the peel off of them before you cut them up. The easiest way to do that is by blanching them. Once the sauce and paste are in the pot, turn the flame on to medium to high heat, mix it really well so that the tomato sauce and paste are completely mixed together, and cover it.
To blanch your tomatoes, what you want to do is bring a pot of water up to a boil. While the water is heating up, cut out the core (at the top) from each tomato and then cut an X out on the bottom, just deep enough to break the skin. That will help you peel the skin off when you're ready. Once the water is boiling, submerge the tomatoes in the water. Let them sit for about 2 - 3 minutes. After that, put them in a bowl of ice water, this will stop the cooking process. Once the tomatoes have cooled down enough, go ahead and pull the skin off with your fingers. If it's done right the skin will come right off. Then chop them up into small chunks and throw them into the pot.
Next, I like to add onions. I use one medium yellow onion and about a half of a red onion. I dice about half of the onions up really fine and the other half to about the size of my pinky nail. Then, throw that in to the pot.
And of course, what's a marinara sauce without fresh garlic? I use about 4 - 5 cloves of garlic, feel free to use less. and just like the onions I dice half up really fine and the rest into thin slices. and throw that into the pot as well.
By now your sauce is fairly hot, and you should start to see small air bubbles coming up. Now add your seasons, I like to keep it real simple, all I use is some salt, pepper and oregano. But again, feel free to make this your own and add whatever you like.
Reduce the heat to a medium to low heat, and let that sit until you get the desired thickness you want. I like it pretty thick, to the point where if I scoop some out with a spoon, I can almost turn the spoon upside down without it dripping. But if you like it a little liqiudy, mix in about 1/4 of a cup of water. Just keep in mind, if you add more water make sure you add more seasonings.
It should take about 10 to 15 minutes to cook. Don’t walk away from it, because if it burns on the bottom it will be a pain to clean.
I like to fry up the onions first, then add the garlic and the spices, and then the tomato sauce/paste/diced tomatoes.
ReplyDeleteI do hear what you are saying, but the reason why I don't cook the onions first is because when I put them into the sauce raw, by the time the sauce is finished the onions are not mushy. This does a few things, the first is that not all of the water will be cooked out of the onion, which allows the onion to hold on to some of its flavor. the second thing is that, being an extremely textured eater, the contrast between the thick tomato sauce and the "crunchy" onion, is really nice.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I totally disagree. I think that sauteing the onions first allows them to develop their flavor much more fully. Much more so than boiling, which is essentially what you're doing if you add raw onions to tomato sauce.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree, sauteing the onions first brings out more of their flavor, but I don't want the onion to overpower some of the more subtle flavors I have going on.
ReplyDelete