Make a batch of this delicious marinara sauce (pasta/pizza) and store in the fridge or freezer! Use as a pizza sauce, pasta sauce or just as a dip! Delicious!
It is that time of the year again, when tomatoes are dirt cheap. My street vendor was selling them for Rs3/kg this morning. Yes that cheap. And this is also the time I stock up on the tomato goodness for a while – tomato pickle, sun-dried tomatoes, pasta sauce, marinara sauce and this year, I am even thinking of making a tomato ketchup.
For me Marinara sauce is a pantry staple, has to be there at home ALL the time. And that this makes for child’s most favorite and easiest to put together pasta helps too.
Boil the pasta, stir fry some veggies, dunk the sauce and voilà dinner or lunch box ready in minutes. Making the sauce is time-consuming yes but fairly simple and it doesn’t need much of your attention, anyway.
The use of this sauce is not limited to pasta. I use it for pizzas, I use it sometimes for sandwich spreads, as a dip. It can even be used as a sauce to be had with grilled chicken or grilled fish. Truly a multi use sauce! I do love these simple make in advance and store and use kind of recipes. Like molagapodi. You can make a batch in no time and it lasts for weeks. (Well, not in our house, but am saying!) Or a simple saunth which stays fresh for a long time. Then you don’t have to worry about making fresh chutney everytime you make something!
I really admire our elders who came up with some awesome recipes as kitchen hacks to save time. You make a batch and store and when you are in a rush, you can make something really basic and these kitchen hacks can be used to add that extra zing to your meal 🙂
Source – various internet sources put together.
Kitchen Basics : Marinara Pasta/Pizza Sauce
Ingredients
- 25 - 30 tomatoes large
- 10 - 15 pods garlic finely chopped
- 3 onions medium sized finely chopped
- 2 red bell peppers finely chopped
- 6 tbsps butter
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- 2 tbsps balsamic vinegar
- olive oil
- Handful basil fresh leaves
- salt
- chilli powder or paprika
- 1/2 cup white wine (I think red should do too), optional
Instructions
- Heat water in a wide bottomed pan, add tomatoes and blanch them, until they are cooked enough for the skin to peel off. Peel the tomatoes when cold. Chop them roughly.
- Add butter and olive oil to the same or another pan (I used the same), add garlic and saute for 2-3 minutes. Add and let it cook well. I like to caramelise the onions at this stage but cooking them only till soft will work. Add the tomatoes at this stage and mash them a bit using a wooden spatula or potato masher. Let it stew.
- After about half hour of the tomatoes stewing, add the herbs, I added basil like I mentioned in the recipe but you can add thyme, oregano or any other herb you have handy. For me the combination of tomatoes and basil is like a match made in heaven. At this stage add the chopped red bell peppers also. You can also oven or gas roast your red peppers before adding them to give a slightly different flavour. Also add the wine at this stage if you are using it.
- After stewing it for 30 more minutes, check the flavoring and add more salt if needed, paprika (use if possible since it gives a nice red color but doesn't make it very spicy), the balsamic vinegar and stir well. Let it cook for another 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes the sauce should be thick and tomatoes nicely cooked. Let it cook and puree it if you like at this point. I like it chunky but since the resident brat, O likes it not chunky. I pureed it.
- Store in clean, dry sterilised bottles for upto 10 days in fridge and upto 6 months in the freezer.
Tomatoes will never be cheap where I stay 🙁 But I am loving the idea of a home made sauce like this!
Looks like I can manage it without a disaster. 😀 Will try it out sometime soon. Hubby and kids love Pasta too. Thanks for sharing! 🙂
loved the idea of making pizza/pasta sauce at home, best use of tomatoes at this rate 🙂
Oh yes. My pantry staple too, and I make egg scramble with it too 🙂
I would try it with balsamic vinegar next. Never did that.
Yummy!! Tomatoes are cheap here too now! Will make this! Pinning!
I will have to shift where you live. my street vendor is selling tomatoes for rs. 30/kg 🙁 But that is not going to stop me from trying this sauce. pinning it.
I bought them thinking of this recipe in mind and especially when the hawker sold them for 2 kgs for 10 rupees 😀 one can’t resist it! And I also remembered Prats giving rave reviews for this recipe of yours! So marinara sauce here I come! and thanks for sharing it with the public 😀