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Marinara Sauce
Master this sauce and you're well on your way to being a terrific Italian cook. In my opinion, you can always tell whether you have found a great Italian restaurant by the quality of its marinara. It's one of the simplest sauces to make, yet one of the most difficult to make great. Only a few ingredients go into it, so each one plays a big part in the final result and must therefore be of the highest quality. I like to think that marinara sauce has in it
something of the sea.
My grandmother passed onto my mother, and she to me, a recipe using anchovies to flavor the sauce, and I have always made my sauce this way. I urge you to do the same, even if you don't like anchovies. You'd never know they were there, yet they add wonderful flavor.
Ingredients:
(Makes 7 cups)
- 3 to 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 2 anchovy fillets, chopped
- 1 medium clove garlic, minced
- 3 cans (28 ounces each) whole peeled plum tomatoes (or crushed or diced tomatoes) in their own juice, coarsely chopped or broken up by hand (do not put through a food processor, which will affect taste and color), hard cores removed and discarded
- 2 or 3 whole basil leaves
- 1I cup water
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions:
Heat the olive oil in a 4- to S-quart saucepan over medium heat for about 30 seconds. Cook the onion and anchovies in the hot oil for about 2 minutes, until they are soft.
Sauté the garlic for about 30 seconds, or until it begins to brown. Remove the pan from the heat and add the tomatoes and basil leaves. Bring to a boil, pour in the water (the sauce will lose a lot of liquid during cooking), and reduce the heat to low.
Partially cover the pan to allow steam to escape, and cook for approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours, until you have a thick, rich sauce. Stir occasionally to prevent bits of the tomatoes from sinking to the bottom of the pan and burning. Season with salt and pepper.
QUICK SAUCE VARIATION: For a quick tomato sauce that is still delicious, buy canned tomatoes that are labeled "recipe ready" or "kitchen ready." This sauce will take about 25 to 35 minutes to prepare.
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