Due to the abundance of fresh tomatoes in our garden I decided to try my hand at making homemade Marinara sauce. I choose to use Giada De Laurentiis recipe for basic marinara with a few changes. I was pleasantly surprised at how incredibly easy fast and delicious this recipe was. I don’t think I will ever be able to go back to the jarred variety. The tomato and garlic really came through. I did however triple this recipe and added 3 lbs of meat for my carnivorous family. My hubby wouldn’t dare eat a marinara sans meat. He kept saying over and over, this is the best he’s ever had. I don’t get sick of hearing that.
Ingredients: 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1 small onion, 2-4 garlic cloves, 1 celery stalk, 1 carrot, 1 bell pepper, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp black pepper, 1 quart fresh tomatoes, diced or 32 oz diced canned tomatoes, 1 dried bay leave, 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
start off finely chopping your onions, cut in half remove peel, then laying onion on its cut side, cut horizontally 3/4 through the onion
Then cut small diagonally, the dice into small pieces
While your chopping your onions, heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large stock pot
Then take 3-4 cloves of garlic, pop with knife or bottom of a glass, and remove peel, chop finely
Add onions and garlic to saute until translucent, about 8-10 minutes
While onions are cooking, finely chop carrots, celery, and bell pepper
Add the rest of the diced veggies, salt and pepper- let them cook another 10 minutes of so
Then start dicing your fresh tomatoes till you reach 1 quart or just use 32 oz can of diced tomatoes
Add to sauteed veggies
Then add your bay leaves, and Italian seasonings
then simmer on low heat until sauce thickens, about 1 hour
Then if your like me, brown 1 lb ground beef and add to marinara, salt and pepper to taste.
The reason I tripled this recipe despite having massive amounts of tomatoes, is that I wanted to freeze the sauce for later use.
So take 2 large freezer bags, label one with the date and contents
Then take a large measuring cup, fill it up to desired ounces, for this case I did a 24 oz portion
Pour into unlabeled freezer bag, and squeeze all the air out and seal
Then put inside labeled freezer bag, squeeze all the air out and seal, then freeze!
Perfect for Spaghetti, Eggplant Parmesan, several different types of pizza, 1, 2, 3 to be exact, lasagna or any other use you can think of.
Marinara Sauce taken from Giada De Laurentis
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
1 bell pepper, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
1 dried bay leaves
1/2 tsp Italian Seasonings
Directions
In a large pot, heat the oil over a medium-high flame. Add the onions and garlic and saute until the onions are translucent, about 10 minutes. Add the celery, carrots, bell pepper and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Saute until all the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves, Italian seasonings and simmer uncovered over low heat until the sauce thickens, about 1 hour. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Season the sauce with more salt and pepper, to taste.
(The sauce can be made 1 day ahead. Cool, then cover and refrigerate. Rewarm over medium heat before using.)