Fresh Marinara Sauce

• Serves: 6

• Adapted From

• Contributor: MikeCrute

The amount of tomatoes are approximate, use more or fewer depending on how you're scaling the recipe. For spices, the fresh ingredients will give the best taste but dry ingredients will also work.

For a more smooth consistency of sauces, blend it again once the sauce has finished cooking.

Ingredients

• 12 fresh Roma Tomatoes
• Bay Leaves
• Fresh Basil
• Fresh Oregano
• Fresh Parsley
• Olive Oil
• White Onion
• Garlic (granulated is fine but fresh is the best)
• Grated Parmesan Cheese
• Salt
• Pepper
• Meat (Italian Sausage, Meatballs, Spare Ribs) or Lobster Tails (optional)

Instructions

1. Peel the tomatoes but cutting a shallow X into the bottom and dropping into boiling water until the skin splits, then into an ice bath to prevent cooking. Once peeled rough chop them and blitz them in a food processor until they have a nice chunky consistency (they'll cook down but not too much).
2. In a deep, medium size sauce pan, cover the bottom with Olive Oil and add 1/2 chopped onion and 4 teaspoons of garlic (I use minced garlic for ease). Place over low heat until oil heats up and onion softens. Don’t let the garlic brown.
3. Add Tomato Puree cover and cook over low heat, stirring frequently. Continue cooking and stirring until the Puree is good and hot, then proceed.
4. Add Salt and Pepper, sparingly at first. You will add more “to taste” as the sauce cooks.
5. Add about 3 bay leaves (more if you use more tomatoes)
6. Add the spices. The amount of spice used should be equivalent to covering the entire top of the puree.
7. Add Parmesan Cheese. Cover about half of the top of the puree.
8. Reduce the heat to very low. Stir frequently because the tomato puree will burn on the bottom of the sauce pan if the heat is too high.
9. Cook on very low heat for 3-4 hours. Taste the sauce and add more spices to taste.
10. If you are adding Italian Sausage, Meatballs or Spare Ribs you want to partially cook the meat while the gravy is cooking. Stab the Italian Sausage before cooking. Place the meat on a greased (aluminum covered) cookie sheet and cook in the oven at 350 degrees. You want to partially cook the meat letting the fat drain out. The meat will continue to cook once it is placed in the gravy.
11. If you are adding Lobster Tails do not pre-cook the tails. However, you do want to cut the thin side of the shells with a scissor so that the lobster meat can be easily taken out of the shells when removed from the sauce.
12. Add the meat or Lobster Tails to the sauce and continue cooking. The longer you let the sauce simmer with the meat or Lobster Tails added in, the tastier the sauce will be.
13. If the sauce is getting too thick feel free to add water. There is no correct thickness the sauce has to be. It’s just a matter of preference.
14. You cannot over cook the sauce just always keep the heat low.

CategoryRecipesSauces