I'd never made Marinara Sauce til last weekend and now I'm wondering why not. I googled Marinara Sauce recipes, looked them up in my cookbooks and realized that this was one of the simplest sauces to make and one I should, and I want to emphasize should, have in my repetoire.
I always knew Marinara Sauce was basically just tomato sauce amped up with some herbs, but kinda dismissed it as, oh, I don't know, not something I thought I should know how to make? Really silly, but honestly, I thought it would be more difficult than it was.
One of the side benefits of this blog is that I have pushed the envelope, dared to try and fail and learned a lot more about cooking than I ever thought of learning or doing or...
Got sidetracked there, sorry.
Marinara Sauce.
Heat the olive oil and add the finely minced onion and grated carrot and let it cook for just a couple of minutes, long enough to turn the onion translucent and have it start to smell wonderful. Add the garlic and stir it around for about 30 seconds, you just want it to start cooking a little. Add the tomato and the fresh herbs, the marjoram, cheese and pepper flakes and stir it up. Let it simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes or so and then taste. If it's a little bitter add the sugar, but you may not need it. I know parmesan cheese isn't the usual add but I thought it might add something to the sauce and I was right, it did.
I served this in 'Spider/Critter I'd made out of bread dough for Tapas and it was so good.
The leftover sauce was added to a batch of my homemade Spaghetti Sauce and that really amped it up as well.
I think I need to keep a box of the tomatoes in my pantry from now on so that the next time I want some Marinara Sauce it will be easy. I've always got onions, garlic and herbs on hand.
I think I see Marinara Sauce in my near future...
