Mmmmm Marinara!

Sorry it took me so long to write this up - it's been a hectic and tiring few days. I won't even bore you with the details of last night's dinner... let's just say that my 9 year old fed everyone.

On to yummy pasta-saucey goodness!!!

Our list of ingredients for this one include:

1. 1 onion (yellow, medium to large ish)
2. 4 or 5 cloves of garlic
3. 1 cup diced carrots
4. sea salt, crushed red pepper flake, italian seasoning
5. 1 can tomato paste
6. 1 big can crushed tomatoes
7. 1 can diced tomatoes
8. 1 cup of liquid - a good dry red wine would be best, but if you don't have any in the house - a cup of water plus 1 T of sugar will work OK too. 
9. Olive oil

Dice up the onion and carrot. Put the veggies in a COLD pan with a few good swirls of olive oil. Put your pan over medium heat, and season with salt and red pepper flake. We're going to re-season this a few times as we go along, so don't overdo it. You just want enough salt on the veggies to get them to start releasing their liquid.. this is called "sweating" and is the best way to extract all the flavor.

Now that you've got your veggies all warm and happy - start mincing up your garlic. Please... please use fresh garlic. There is absolutely no way to get the same taste out of powdered, dehydrated garlic. Yes, your hands will be stinky - but if you run them under cold water and rub them with a stainless steel spoon, most of that odor will be gone.

Toss the garlic in after your veggies have released most of their liquid. Saute for a few more minutes, but don't overdo it - if your garlic burns, it will leave a bitter taste in your sauce and that is NOT delicious. Once your garlic has gotten warm and happy, add your can of tomato paste. Let this cook down for several minutes, until it starts to develop a brown crust on the bottom of the pan. BROWN FOOD IS GOOD FOOD... and COLOR = FLAVOR. Trust me, you do not want to skip this step.

Here is where I would normally add the red wine, and let it reduce by half before moving on. Unfortunately, I didn't have any in the house, so I threw in a cup of hot water  to get all those yummy brown bits off the bottom of the pan. You need to scrape it all up as it cooks down, so that flavor will become part of your sauce. Next, I throw in my can of diced tomatoes - and this is where I do all my additional seasoning. I generally add about a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of sugar, and in the summer - a TON of fresh basil. (If I had to measure - and YOU CAN'T MAKE ME! - I would say about 3T of fresh basil.) Since it's out of season, I make do with dried italian seasoning - about 1.5T. You're going to let this cook for maybe 3 - 5 more minutes, to further reduce the liquid from the canned diced tomatoes.

Lastly, I add the can of crushed tomatoes, and let the whole thing simmer for about 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so. TASTE, and re-season if needed - yours may need more salt or more red pepper flake. The carrot and the sugar (or wine) will add some natural sweetness, but if you feel your sauce is too acidic you can always throw a bit more sugar in also.

This is a really good, basic sauce recipe. I use this in everything from crockpot spaghetti and meatballs, to lasagna, to a base for bolognese. Added bonus: it's completely vegetarian, so if you have lots of veggie-head friends like I do - you can still invite them for dinner!

It's also a really good idea to save about a cup and a half of this sauce for our next recipe... Minestrone :) MMmmmmmm... more veggie-friendly food, and there is nothing that I love more than a hot pot of soup on the stove in the middle of a NY winter!