marinara

We love to eat pasta at our house.  It's definitely a staple.  One of my favorite ways to top our pasta is with fresh tomatoes, however, the tomatoes right now are super gross, so I need to wait until summer again...In the meantime, I think I have found my favorite marinara sauce.  I have tried every store bought marinara sauce there is but I can never find quite the right flavor - too oniony, too garlic-y, too gross, too sweet, etc, etc.  A few days ago the kids and I were watching the Kitchen Boss and he made the most delicious looking marinara sauce.  I decided to give it a go, and you know what?  I love Buddy's recipe.  It was totally easy, totally delicious, and totally took me back to Italy.  I can't wait to eat it again, and again, and again...

So here it is (I changed it just a titch, but you can go to Buddy's recipe by following the link above).

Marinara Sauce

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes in juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped*

In a large pan heat the oil and garlic together.  When the garlic becomes pale gold and fragrant, add the tomatoes, salt, and 1 tablespoon basil.  Stir well to combine and bring sauce to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.  Simmer sauce, 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally until sauce has thickened and is richly flavored.  Remove from heat and stir in remaining basil.

This made a lot of sauce, at least for my family since my kids won't eat the sauce, so I froze the rest of it for another night.

*  Instead of using fresh basil, I used basil that I had frozen in ice cube trays at the end of last summer.  I stirred in one cube at the beginning of cooking and one at the end.  (I measured the ground up basil into tablespoons and put one tablespoon in each section of ice cube trays.)