Marinara Sauce

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
4 tablespoons Olive oil
1/4 cup garlic -- thinly sliced
56 ounces Whole peeled Italian plum tomatoes
1/4 cup Firmly-packed basil leaves -- torn
Salt -- to taste
black pepper -- to taste

Heat oil in a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat. Add garlic and saute, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Into a sieve placed over a bowl, pour tomatoes. With your hands squeeze juice from tomatoes until they resemble a coarse chunky pulp. Add tomato pulp and basil to saucepan and simmer 10 minutes. Reserve tomato juice, if desired, for another use. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with pasta.

*Other spices may be used, such as oregano, thyme, etc.

It is always good to use fresh tomatos but most of us don't have time.
Canned diced tomatoes -
oregano
basil leaves - 2 to 4
salt and pepper
garlic powder
onion powder

dice garlic and onions and in a frying pan lightly brown with a little virgin olive oil. While doing this put a little salt and pepper in. Once browned add to the rest of the sauce and stir in.
Continue stiring and tasting and go along to your liking.

I start with some chopped fresh herbs and then I decide what I want to add to my marninara. The basic marinara has onions and mushrooms.

I sautee the herbs and diced onions in olive oil and I dump this in a pot. Then I sautee the sliced 'shrooms with olive oil and garlic and add to the pot. Then I cut up my tomatoes and sautee them with some olive oil and maybe a little wine. I do this in batches and when they get mushy I whiz them in the food processor. I do this until I've used up all the tomatoes I've picked that day. I let this simmer about 40 minutes.

Since I like well rounded meals, my marinaras usually have other veggies in them. The batch from tuesday had zucchinis and green peppers -- I sauteed them and then whizzed them in the food processor too. I added crumbled feta to that. It was great over whole wheat angel hair pasta. Last night my variation was with carrots. I put three through the food processor then I sauteed that pulp with some dill and garlic. Then I went about my usual method with the onions, mushrooms and tomatoes. This marinara tasted a bit like gazpacho! I like this on slightly broader noodles.

This weekend, I'm going to make up a batch with tomatoes, mushrooms, some gorgonzola cheese and vodka. That will be nice over penne pasta.

I make a large enough pot so I can freeze a jar or two so I can enjoy this fresh stuff once the season is over. Fresh tastes so much better than canned when it comes to tomatoes!