Marinara Sauce

Marinara sauce simmering

Marinara sauce is one of the staples of Italian cooking and can go in so many directions. From pizza sauce, to Fra Diavolo, to Cacciatore to Pizzaiola to Vodka Sauce or any recipe that requires tomato sauce. Memorize this recipe and ALWAYS have the ingredients in the house.

For this post I used roasted plum tomatoes and omitted the tomato paste for a lighter sauce for a summertime meal.

Steps to making marinara suace

THE RECIPE

Prep time is about an hour and a half and it yields about 4 cups.

28 oz can crushed tomatoes or about 4 c fresh diced plum tomatoes

1/2 c olive oil

1 c diced onion

4 cloves minced garlic

fresh or dried basil and oregano to taste

1 small can tomato paste

6 oz dry red wine

salt / pepper to taste

In a large sauce pan, saute onion and garlic until garlic begins to turn golden

Add the tomato paste and saute until it darkens up and is well mixed with garlic and onion mixture

Add the red wine and bring to a boil

Add the tomatoes and simmer on low, stirring often until the sauce thickens and the tomatoes take on a darker color at least an hour. Add seasonings after the first half hour.

Note that I call this sauce. There is no meat or meat stock here. For more on the topic, see my 'Red Gravy' recipe. I like to make an extra large batch of this and freeze it in measured containers of 2 or more cups. It keeps for a year in an airtight container in the freezer.