Making marinara from scratch is seriously so easy and having it on hand opens up dozens of healthy meal options. I don't understand why everyone doesn't do it! I am amazed at how many recipes for "homemade" marinara have canned tomatoes and tomato paste listed in the ingredients. Why not just open up a jar of Prego, add some of your own spices, and call it "homemade"? Same thing. Ditch the cans and make up a big batch of this recipe, refrigerate what's left, and incorporate into quick, healthy meals all week.
Sadly, but truly, there are people out there who will actually argue that what you get from a can is just as good as fresh. So before I go any further, I want to address this argument. First of all, most canned tomatoes are peeled using a chemical process. This is something they usually don't address on the label so unless it specifically reads "steam peeled", it has probably been chemically peeled. Secondly, they usually contain artificial colors, flavors, preservatives, etc, and obviously we don't need any of this in our systems. Thirdly, when you select your own tomatoes individually you get to choose the best out of the bunch. Who knows what those tomatoes looked like before they went into your can? I am not completely against canned food, but when fresh food is so readily available to us why would we use a can instead? Leave your cans for your food storage, and go buy some fresh tomatoes, or pick them from your garden if you are so lucky.
This recipe is simply using a few ingredients to enhance the wonderful flavor of tomatoes instead of masking the flavor under a bunch of other ingredients. Therefore, selecting a high quality flavorful tomato is critical to the deliciousness of your marinara. I have used every different type of tomato you can think of for this recipe and have come to the conclusion that the type of tomato doesn't matter nearly as much as the quality of the tomato. Here are a few tips in how to select the most flavorful tomatoes:
1. Look for vine ripened. This means that the fruit was allowed to mature on the vine rather than being prematurely picked before they reached their full nutritional destiny!
2. Go local. Check out your farmer's market. Once any plant it plucked from it's life source it immediately begins to decompose and lose nutritional value. The longer something sits, the less nutritious, and as a result less flavorful, it becomes.
3. The redder, the bedder. (Yes, I realize that is a typo.) The red color represents the presence of a powerful antioxidant, lycopene and it's co factor beta-carotene. Lycopene has been shown to reduce the risk of hearth disease, certain cancers, and slow the aging process to mention just a few of it's powerful health benefits.
4. Use your sniffer. If they smell sweet and delicious, they probably will be. If they smell like nothing, that is probably similar to how they will taste.
5. Heirlooms and grape tomatoes I have found to be the sweetest, but don't just settle on these types because I said that. If they are not quality tomatoes, it doesn't matter what type they are.
Okay! Now that you have your tomatoes, here's what to do:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Slice an "x" in the bottom of each tomato.
Gently place the tomatoes into the boiling water. Be careful you don't overpopulate your pot. If you put too many tomatoes in at a time it will cool off your water. Then you will have to leave the tomatoes in the water too long in order for them to peel, and they will become soggy. Just watch your water. No more than 5 tomatoes at a time. Sort of like the rules for a hot tub, but for different reasons.
Once the skin begins to peel away (like the image below), shock the tomatoes in cold water. (If you are making this in the summer and you live in Phoenix, you will probably need to add ice to your tap water to get it cool enough.) If you are using the marinara for pasta, you've already got some boiling water. Toss your pasta in and keep it going!
Once your tomatoes are cool to the touch, the skin will easily peel off. Remove the stemmy part and the peel and set aside. Reserve your stems and peels to compost your garden. Of course you have a garden.
Now, warm up a large non-nonstick sauce pan over medium heat with about 3 tablespoons of olive oil in the bottom. We will be mashing the tomatoes right in the pan which will not be pretty if you are using non-stick. Once your oil is hot, add some diced onion. I like to use 1 onion per 10 tomatoes, but you can adjust this based on your love of onions. I find that the sweet brown onions make the best marinara sauce. Cook the onions until they become opaque, or "see through", about 5 minutes. If you are a good multi-tasking cook you can get your onions going while you are boiling your tomatoes. If you are not a good multi-tasker, don't. You will either scorch your onions or mush your tomatoes.
Add some finely chopped garlic. I use one clove per tomato, but we are garlic lovers around this house. Adjust as you see fit. Let it hang out with the onion for about a minute. Be careful not to scorch it! Since it is finely chopped it will scorch easily. Just watch it and you will be fine.
Tear your peeled tomatoes in half and place them on top of the onions, seed side down. Some people like to remove the seeds, but I find this pointless and honestly don't know why someone would waste the beautiful seeds and sacrifice innocent juice in the process. I digress. Drizzle the top of your tomatoes with a little more olive oil. (Lycopene is fat-soluble which means you’ll get the maximum benefit of tomato nutrition when tomatoes are absorbed in your body with the help of fats. Think about this any time you eat a tomato. Add some fat!) Your pot should now look like this:
Cover, and keep your heat at medium for about 5 minutes while the tomatoes release their juices and soften. After about 5 minutes, grab your tomato masher and start smashing! Make sure to set your baby down before you do this. Don't ask me how I know this is an important step.
Now, this is what you should be looking at. A nice juicy pot of tomato sauce.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for about 30 minutes or so. Use your masher and smash them more every 10 minutes or so as the little pieces continue to soften. Once your sauce has thickened, you are ready to add your seasonings. If you season early on, the tomatoes will cook down and the seasoning might be too much (especially salt).
This is what mine looked like after 30 minutes or so. Nice and thick and chunky!
Time to season! I added about 1 tsp of salt using 10 tomatoes. I like to add about 1/2 tsp of crushed red pepper to give it a little bite, but in this batch I used one of Bernie's Santa Fe Chile's from our garden. For herbs, I used oregano, parsley and thyme because that's what was still thriving in the garden. I usually add basil, but the fresh stuff didn't survive this last cold spell for some reason. Basically, whatever herbs suite your fancy will be great. I have yet to find an herb that doesn't blend well with tomatoes.
This is what my sauce looked like after it was all said and done.
And this is what my son looked like eating a cherry tomato he picked from from our Tower Garden.
This particular batch went over some spaghetti squash for a vegetable covered in vegetables for dinner! You can puree about 2 cups and make a delicious pizza sauce. Throw it in the crock pot with some peppers and chicken for chicken katchatori. Add some panchetta or hamburger if you like a meat sauce. Add some mushrooms if you like fungus. Chicken ziti, lasagna, risotto, I could go on and on. So many options with this sauce! Next time tomatoes are on sale, do yourself a favor and buy about 20, make a big batch and freeze it in medium mason jars. You will thank yourself next time you need to make a quick meal and you don't want to order take-out. It's also husband proof. I like to leave some in the freezer when I leave town so Bernie can have some home-cooked meals while I'm away.
Recipe:
Ingredients:
10 ripe tomatoes
1 medium sweet brown onion, chopped.
5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped.
3-6 T olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/1 tsp. crushed red pepper
A few sprigs of chopped fresh basil
A few sprigs of chopped fresh oregano
Process:
Boil some water in a large pot. Cut an "x" in the bottom of each tomato and gently place into the boiling water. Boil about 5 tomatoes at a time for about 1 minute. Once the skin begins to peel away, shock the tomatoes in cold water. Remove the skins and stem and set aside.
Heat up 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a medium sauce pan over medium heat. Add chopped onion and cook till opaque, about 10 minutes. Add chopped garlic and cook for about 1 minute. Tear your tomatoes in half and place on top of garlic and onions. Cover your pot and cook for about 5 minutes. Mash your tomatoes using a tomato masher, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue cooking for 20-30 minutes, mashing occasionally. Once your sauce reaches a thick and chunky consistency, add your seasonings.
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