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Marinara Sauce

This is a very simple tomato sauce that is good by itself on pasta, as a base for sauces with meats or vegetables added, or as a pizza sauce. Get the ripest tomatoes you can find - of course the best is if you have a large harvest in late summer from your own garden. The amounts here are all very fuzzy - just go with what seems good.

What you'll need:

fresh tomatoes, very ripe
finely minced garlic
basil and/or oregano, coarsely chopped
olive oil
red wine (optional)
sugar
salt and pepper

First, you need to peel and seed the tomatoes. To peel the tomatoes, throw a few at a time into a large pot of boiling water. Leave them there for about two minutes, then pull them out and put them into a sink filled with cold water (adding some ice won't hurt, either). Repeat this until all of your tomatoes have been blanched this way. Now the skins will just sort of slough right off.

I like to do the next step over a bowl with a strainer on top, to catch the tomato juices and strain out the seeds. I cut out the stem part of the tomato, then cut it in half while holding it in my hand (if you do this on a cutting board, the juices run all over the place, and you'll want them later). Squish the internal seedy parts of the tomatoes out into the strainer, and set the fleshy parts aside. When you've done that to all the tomatoes, cut up the fleshy parts in a pretty fine dice, and set them aside in a bowl. Then, in the strainer, mash all of the seedy part into the mesh to push all the juices out, and discard the seeds.

In a pot that can hold all your tomatoes, heat a goodish amount of olive oil over a medium flame. Maybe cover the bottom of the pot with 1/4 inch of oil... but that's just a ballpark figure. Use what looks good to you. When the oil is hot, add the garlic and cook until it starts to soften, and the kitchen begins to smell like heaven. Add salt and pepper to the cooking garlic, then throw in the tomatoes. Cook at a fairly high heat for a couple of minutes, stirring frequently.

Now's the difficult judgement part. You've got to add back some of the tomato juice and the wine. But how much? Well, it depends on how long you're going to cook the sauce. I like to cook it for a long time, like four or five hours, even, so I add back most of the tomato juice and a little red wine (hmm... by a little I probably mean 1/4 cup for 2 lbs. of tomatoes, maybe). If you've only got like an hour and a half, you'll cook the sauce at a higher temperature with less liquid. So, add however much liquid you like, and the herbs. I prefer to use just oregano or basil, not necessarily both, but use whatever floats your boat.

Turn the heat way down, low enough that the sauce is just barely bubbling (for my preferred slow-cooking method). Leave the cover on, and stir it every fifteen minutes or so. Keep an eye on the thickness. If it's seeming very thin, leave the lid off - this allows the water to evaporate and the sauce will thicken. If it gets too thick, leave the lid on, or add more tomato juice or wine.

As it's getting close to completion, start tasting it. Add salt and pepper to taste. If it's not tasting flavorful enough (how's that for imprecise?), try adding just a little bit of sugar. A teaspoon or two. It tends to bring out the flavor the way that salt does. Just experiment.

That's it. Put it on your spaghetti, add some sausages to it, put it on a pizza, whatever sounds good.

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