For those of you who automatically got transferred over and didn’t notice a change(I hope that’s even possible!) I’m now at my new home at fooddoodles.com. If you went to my old wordpress site you would have been automatically transferred here, so please change your bookmarks and make sure your feed reader is pointing in the right direction – I don’t want to lose anyone! The links are on the right hand side to sign up in a feed reader by RSS or by email.
I still have quite a few things to work on and sort out, but I’m super excited to have the freedom of being on my own and can’t wait to make my site a better experience for everyone.
For the first post at my new home, I thought I’d post something nice and simple. I may have been the weirdest little kid ever, but I didn’t really like tomato sauce. I don’t know what it was about it, it just didn’t appeal to me. I am so glad I outgrew that. Honestly, this is one of the first things I ever really knew how to cook and it just keeps getting better. This recipe is also good with a pound of ground beef, but I usually use a half a pound and cook it separately and add it after I’ve taken out a serving of sauce for myself. Either way it’s yummy 🙂
Basic Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium onions
- 4-5 cloves garlic
- 4 cups diced tomatoes peeled plus 1/4 C of water OR a 32 oz can OR one quart sized canning jar, pureed
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste or 2 C extra tomato puree, and increase cooking time
- 2-3 tablespoons dried parsley
- 2-3 teaspoons dried thyme basil and oregano
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon sugar only if using canned tomatoes
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon salt
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onions and cook over medium low heat for 6-8 minutes till softened. Add the garlic, stir well and cook for 2 minutes or so. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste and all the herbs and seasonings. Mix well and simmer over medium low(with a spatter guard over the pan) for about 1 - 1 1/2 hours stirring occasionally till the right consistency is reached. We usually like the sauce really thick but it's up to you how long you want to cook it.
- You can also increase the heat and stir it more frequently to have it done faster, but I like to just leave it on the stove and forget about it over low heat for most of an afternoon usually. The great thing is, if it's too thick you can always add a little water. Also you can take an immersion blender to it, or throw it all in a blender and blend it till smooth if that's what you like. Plus, it makes awesome leftovers, so if don't have time on weeknights, you can make some(or even double it) and have leftovers all week. Or you can use the sauce anywhere you would use bottled or canned pasta sauce. And it's so easy to make 😀
Comments & Reviews
Medifast Coupons says
Isn’t it funny how a lot of smaller children really don’t like a sauce, my grandson just likes the noodles. Really hope he does grow into liking a sauce, grama likes hiding lots of vegetables in there.
But do love your marinara sauce, nice and simple but wholesome. And like you I don’t care for meat in mine and do the same thing, take mine out first and then add the meat. Thanks for sharing and look forward to trying your marinara sauce.
Heidi @ Food Doodles says
Yes, I occasionally hide other veggies in there too 😀 I’m very fortunate both my kids like the sauce, at least for now.
kristy says
Glad I hop in ! You’ve a very lovely blog and fabulous food as well. Thanks for sharing. Mee too…trying hard to feed my kids more greens. They hated the most! ha… Hope you’re having a great day.
Kristy
Heidi @ Food Doodles says
Haha, sometimes mine hate them too 😀 Thanks for stopping in! I hope you have a great day too!
Faith says
Yay, congrats on your new site! Love the look of this marinara…definitely a classic and one of my favs!
Heidi @ Food Doodles says
Thank you! I’m so excited to finally do what I want to the site 😀