Fresh Tomato Marinara Sauce
Nothing says summer like a pot of fresh tomato sauce from your garden.!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 cups chopped onion
- 4 – 6 cloves of garlic crushed
- 3/4 cup dry red wine (optional)
- 1/2 cup parsley chopped fine, divided
- 5 pounds of high-quality fresh Roma type plum tomatoes (see tomato prep instructions below)
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 Tablespoons CENTO Italian seasoning (if not available just add the same amount of extra oregano)
- 2 Tablespoons dried Oregano
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (OPTIONAL, more if you prefer, or chop a long hot or two and fry to make it really hot)
- ½ cup chopped fresh basil
Overview
- Preparation Time: 30 Minutes
- Cooking Time: 60 Minutes
- Serves: 10
- Difficulty Level: 2
- Source: Madelyn Ferrucci
Directions:
Add olive oil and cook the onion on medium until soft. Then add garlic and half the chopped parsley. When softened deglaze the pot with red wine (if using) and cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and spices. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Cook for about 60 minutes string frequently. Check for spices and salt flavor and adjust. Add more chopped parsley and basil when finished cooking.
PREPPING FRESH TOMATOES FOR SAUCE:
There is nothing like a FRESH tomato sauce, straight from your garden. You have many options, like making a pomodoro style quick cook sauce from fresh cherry tomatoes (we have a recipe for that) or a sweet grape tomato sauce (we have that one too) and many other styles, but this recipe focuses on the classic and still gives you several options.
- The classic way to make this sauce is to use a food mill score the tomatoes to break the skin, drop them in a pot of boiling water for just a little bit maybe a minute just scoop them out and run them through a food mill and you have fresh tomato puree; it works just great.
- The other way to do it is to simply cut the stem end off exposing the seed cavity carefully stick a paring knife inside and scrape the seeds and wet pulp out. At this point you have a couple of options you can either use a vegetable peeler and peel the skin off and chop or hand crush the tomatoes to use in your sauce or a really great alternative is after you get the stem end and the seeds out lay them on a foil lined cookie tray and throw them under the broiler for a few minutes until the skin starts to brown. Take a pair of tongs and remove the skin and put the tray with the tomato halves back in the oven. Turn the broiler off but leave the oven on about 450° bake for about 10 minutes to cook off the water. Chop or hand crush (after they cool off) or puree in a blender or food processor. You’ll get roasted tomato sauce and it's really delicious.
Some other sauce options:
- Fry or roast your favorite meats, meatballs, sausage, braciole, pork, beef, even chicken and cook with the sauce.
- If you like a sweeter sauce, skip the sugar, add some finely chopped carrot or red bell pepper when you fry the onions.
- Want to flip this into a seafood sauce? Replace the red wine with white wine but hold about half back to add in the last ten minutes of cooking. Also add about a ½ teaspoon of chopped dried thyme or a couple sprigs of fresh.
- Have tons of basil in tour garden? Make pesto (freeze some!) and top your pasta in tomato sauce with a generous helping of pesto. Tomatoes and basil are ALWAYS perfect together.
- Add ½ cup each of vodka and heavy cream during the last ten minutes of cooking and just like that, you made a vodka cream sauce.
Serving Information
Add more chopped parsley and basil when finished cooking. This should be enough sauce to make about four pounds of pasta. It can be kept in the refrigerator for up to seven days and can be frozen. Having some frozen sauce in the freezer and dry pasta in the cupboard makes for a quick and easy weeknight meal.
