Basic Marinara Sauce

Good-Bye, Ragu, Hello home-made sauce! I can remember my mom teaching me long ago that if I could make a good sauce, I could make anything. I think she is on to something! One of the first things she taught me to make was spaghetti sauce. Contrary to what some of you might think, making your own sauce is not difficult, and it provides the added advantages of being able to control the seasonings, save money and cut back on sodium and sugar to suit your taste and conscience.

This sauce is perfect for lasagna, spaghetti, manicotti, pizza or anything you want a marinara sauce for. If you would like a meat sauce, simply cook ground beef or sausage in a separate pan, drain the fat and add the meat while you simmer the sauce. Of course the added ingredient, especially if you are using sausage, will alter the taste, so be sure not to skip the "final taste-test" in step 4.

I've also included some instructions on how to dice an onion. I am certain my mom taught me this at one point, but it did not sink in until I was already married and had been cooking on my own for a little while. If this is ridiculous for you, laugh and skip it, otherwise, it really might help.

Oh, and one more thing: my mom never measures. And she's the one who taught me to make sauce. So there are no measurements here. I thought about figuring a system of measuring it for you, but I decided that it's good practice to be able to taste and adjust. In fact, you can vary the can sizes and contents as long as you like the taste. You can interchange tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, pureed fresh tomatoes or what-ever you like, but everyone needs some guide-lines, so here goes:

1 onion, diced
3-4 (depending on size) garlic cloves, minced
1 29 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 14-15 oz can tomato sauce
1 small can tomato paste
1 bay leaf
Oregano
Basil
Salt
Black pepper
Sugar
Crushed red pepper
Fresh parsley, chopped

Dice onions by cutting the top and bottom ends off. Then peel the papery layers off the onion. Place one of the flat sides of the onion on top of a cutting board. Not slicing through the entire onion, make cut in the form of a grid, beginning with slices that go vertically along the onion, then turning so that the next set of slices are perpendicular to the first. Then turn the onion on its side and slice it. You should end up with uniformly diced onion pieces, but you will be left with a stub at the end. I usually slice it thinly, then cut my slices. It's not as slick as the first part, but it works well. Please comment if you have a better way of doing this. :)

Drizzle a large sauce pan over med-low heat. Add onions and cook, stirring, until onions become translucent and begin to yellow. Add garlic. Stir the onion and garlic once or twice. Quickly, so as not to burn the garlic, add all crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, etc. Be sure that you use one can (or more for a larger pot of sauce) of tomato paste so your sauce will not be watery.

Season the sauce by adding the bay leaf and subsequent seasonings. Be liberal with basil and oregano (see picture), but remember that you can always add but never remove seasonings. Be less liberal with the black and crushed red pepper, using only about a pinch of each to start with. For sugar, use about 1/2 tsp to begin with. Canned tomatoes differ from brand to type and certainly differ from fresh. Seasonings will have to be adjusted accordingly. Stir the mixture and bring to a simmer. If you like, take a taste, although this will change somewhat as the sauce simmers, so I recommend always tasting the sauce again later.

Cover to let simmer, stirring once every 15-20 minutes. Simmering for about an hour is enough, but if you're in a hurry, it's not imperative. If necessary, you can cut the simmering time down to about 15 minutes. However long it cooks, be sure to taste the mixture about 15 minutes before it is removed from the heat. At this point, adjust any seasonings that need it. Just before removing the sauce from the heat, add chopped parsley.