Back To The Basics..Starting With This Sauce

This seems like a lit of work for just one batch of marinara sauce but trust me it makes a lot. Go ahead and put 2 – 3 cups of sauce in quart sized freezer bags and freeze for later. You will be so glad you did and I you can cook this in a crock pot on medium for 5-6 hours so you don’t have to have the oven on for so long.

Essential Marinara

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 cup finely chopped sweet onion
  • 5 garlic cloves, minced
  • 7 pounds fresh tomatoes, cored and lightly scored on bottom
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 2 teaspoons reduced-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 sprigs fresh basil

Directions:

  1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven or large oven-safe saucepan over medium-low. Add onion and garlic; cook 20 minutes or until translucent and tender, stirring occasionally.
  2. Preheat oven to 300°F.
  3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Working in batches, plunge tomatoes into water; blanch 15 seconds or until peels loosen at scored edges. Remove from water; drain. Remove peels; discard.
  4. Chop tomatoes.
  5. Add tomatoes to onion mixture.
  6. Stir in sugar, salt, oregano, and soy sauce. Bring mixture to a simmer.
  7. Place in oven; bake, uncovered, at 300°F for 6 hours.  OR in a Crock Pot for 6 hours.  Stir in butter.
  8. Stir in basil; let sauce stand 20 minutes.

Quick hack: Sub 3 (28-ounce) cans un-drained whole tomatoes, crushed, for fresh; use rest of ingredients as directed. Bake uncovered 50 minutes at 425°F.

Photo and Recipe courtesy of Cooking Light

 

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