While there are millions of saucing possibilities, I am going to cover a few variations on a single good base tomato sauce. As always, you should experiment with your food. The marinara below can be the starting point for anything from rich, creamy sauces, to spicy arrabiata, to "funky" flavors. I've used this base and added cinnamon and other "sweet" spices, and used that as a savory sauce for chicken sausage.
This is one of those basic recipes that should be in everybody's repertoire. Stop buying jars of tomato sauce! They're full of sugar, taste bad, and cost a lot more than making the sauce below. This sauce can be ready in 15 minutes if you are in a hurry, or let it sit for 45+ minutes to thicken and bring out some depth of flavor.
Basic Tomato Marinara
1 - 22 oz. can of crushed tomatoes. Tomatoes ONLY. Don't get canned tomato sauce or tomatoes with spices added...that stuff tastes like crap.
2 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons (?) olive oil
Fresh (preferred) or dried basil and oregano
Peel the garlic, crush it with the blade of your knife, and then mince. Heat the oil in a sauce pan until it shimmers (but don't let it smoke). Turn the heat down to medium and saute the garlic for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until it is aromatic...if the garlic browns or burns, then the oil is way too hot.
Pour the can of tomatoes into the pan and stir to mix in the garlic. Immediately add a generous amount of basil and a few pinches of oregano, plus a pinch of salt and pepper. (You don't need much, or any, salt with canned tomatoes, because they have already added some.) Generous means 2-3 tablespoons of dried basil, or a good sized bunch of fresh basil that has been chopped up. I generally shake the container until most of the surface of the tomatoes is covered in basil. Stir in the spices and let the sauce simmer, stirring occasionally, while you prepare your pasta. The longer this sauce cooks, the better it will be.
That's it! How easy is that, huh?
Variations:
- Try sauteing a small onion (diced) or a minced shallot with the garlic.
- Try this with fresh tomatoes! Take about 2 pounds of fresh, and blanche them to easily peel. Discard the skins. Cut open the tomatoes, and seed them. Save the seeds, water, and goo that comes out, for thinning the sauce later. Dice the seeded tomatoes and proceed as above, adding some of the tomato water to the pot as needed. This will need to cook much longer (1 hour+), to break down the tomatoes. You can serve this as a chunky sauce or throw in a Cuisinart to create a smooth sauce.
- Try different spices...crushed red pepper for a spicy arrabiata, less or no basil, or marjoram and sage for a more savory flavor.
- Add a tablespoon of cream for a pink sauce...delicious, but more filling as well.
The New Hotness is a favorite variation of ours, using spicy Italian sausage and red pepper. Start by sauteing about a pound of hot Italian sausages. I prefer to remove the sausage from the casing and crumbling it, but you could also cook them whole and then slice the sausage for the final sauce. (It's called the New Hotness because we came up with the recipe on a night that we watched Men In Black II, back in the day. Remember Will Smith saying he was going to drive? "Old and busted....new hotness.")
Once the sausage is cooked, remove and drain the grease (both from the sausage and the pan). Proceed with sauteeing garlic and onions above, adding just a touch of olive oil to the pan if needed. Add the tomatoes and herbs, but also throw in a dash of cayenne pepper, or a few dashes of crushed red pepper to taste, plus generous black pepper. Also add the cooked sausage back to the pot at this point.
So there you go! Easy-breezy-lemon-cheesey, right? (No lemons required.) Enjoy!
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