Like the title? Haha Big fan of RuPaul's Drag Race over here. Let me tell you, I LIVE for drag!
Alrighty! Welcome back! Been away for a while. Mixture of personal things and a lack of inspiration to write. But it hit me the other day that the main thing I love to write and post about is food. One of the main reasons for my username. Haha So this blog may focus more on that and I have a lot of friends who probably won't be mad at that at all. Every time my brother and I go to Dutch Bros, it's always "ok, what are you cooking today?" followed by me showing a picture of said meal and drooling from the baristas. My family and I make good food. Simple as that. So I might as well share the wealth. Haha
I thought I'd ease into writing again by posting a super simple marinara sauce recipe. I have to give a big credit to my brother, Paul, for teaching me the basics of red sauce and the wonder that is San Marzano tomatoes. Seriously, it's life changing.
The Rundown:
- 3 28oz cans of whole San Marzano Tomatoes
- 4 tablespoons freshly minced garlic
- 1 1/2 teaspoons Red Pepper Flake
- 1 teaspoon Oregano
- 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
- 1 teaspoon Salt & Pepper
- Olive Oil
This makes roughly 2 quarts of sauce depending on how much you reduce it.
*Why San Marzanos and not regular canned tomatoes? These babies come from Italy and are sweeter and meatier than other plum tomatoes. While most tomatoes have about 5 seed pockets (aka that watery part), San Marzanos have only 2. This is perfect for a red sauce because you don't want a super acidic and watery sauce. You'll end up doing a bunch of extra stuff to it to overcompensate. A can of these will run you a little more cash than regulars too, but like I said, they make your job easier.*
Alrighty, first you wanna mince your garlic. I ended up using about half a head total, so just keep peeling and mincing each clove until you get the right amount. Using fresh cloves instead of pre-packaged minced garlic is better on the aromatic front. Helps the "blooming" process when it hits the olive oil. Also, if you're not a huge fan of garlic, you can use just 2T but, let's be real here, this IS Italian cooking! Gotta use the O.G. stuff.
Next I would get my tomatoes ready to go because once you get your garlic sautéing, it's less than 5min before you need to add your tomatoes. Do you want burned garlic? No. No you don't. So glove up (or don't, but now you have to wash your hands in the middle of cooking so...) and pour all of that San Marzano goodness into a bowl and start squeezing that anger out! Most brands will have whole basil leaves mixed in and I just pick those out. No one likes a big slimy leaf in their red sauce. Doesn't help the mouth feel. Now you want all of the tomatoes to be very well crushed through. I still like a little chunkiness, it's very rustic, but if you want a super smooth sauce you can strain them. Just make sure to get all that you can out of the tomatoes before you toss the meat out. Press it through the strainer and such.
Once your tomatoes are prepped, it's time to heat up some olive oil in your pot. You only need just enough to cover the bottom. You'll want your burner on a medium heat and you'll know when the oil is ready for your garlic when it shimmers a bit. You can also throw in a piece of garlic and if it sizzles a little (not violent volcanic eruptions but definitely some bubbles happening) to tell if it's ready. For example:
Toss in your red pepper flake, stir, and wait for the garlic to brown a little. Should only take a few minutes. This was mine after 4min:
Perfect G.B.D! Ok, add your tomatoes and seasonings, stir and cover it with a lid, leaving a small window for steam to escape. This helps with reducing that liquid down because steam equals water and if it just keeps reaching the top of the lid and dripping down into the sauce that defeats the purpose of reducing and makes you sad. Don't be sad, let your steam escape! The only real reason I say to cover it is because it will bubble up and splatter all over your stovetop and surrounding counters. You'll end up losing precious sauce. Ok, I'll show you where my sauce level was at when I started. About an inch or so from the top:
Annnnnnd this was after 2 hours (notice the little red dots of doom from the 30sec removing the lid and stirring. Told you! Haha):
Yes. It takes that long. You'll wanna stir occasionally to make sure all the bits on the bottom don't burn or get stuck there. This also depends on how thick you like your marinara. For pizzas, you typically want a thicker sauce because a thin one will make for a soggy, undercooked dough. But for a dipping sauce and for over noodles, it's ok for it to be a little bit thinner. It's all trial and error and preference. Everyone is different.
This is also a good time to do a quick taste test. Again, this is a matter of preference. I thought mine was perfect so I went ahead and let it chill to almost room temp before I put it in a Tupperware. This sauce will last in the fridge for probably 2ish weeks. Don't quote me on that because I usually use all of what I make that day or only have about 2 cups leftover and that gets used very quickly as well. There never has been a situation of opening a bad container of sauce for me, and hope I never have to experience that. Haha
Hope this helps with your adventures into the red sauce making world! For me, this sauce gets better every time because I get more and more comfortable with the process. I think that goes for all of cooking. Practice makes perfect. And you also develop your pallet too. I used to put dried basil in mine and I found that basil is a very powerful herb and it took over the sauce. It was all I could taste. Unless it's for a pesto sauce, I'm not a huge fan of using a bunch of it. And if you were wondering how I used my sauce today:
Until next time,
R.
Twitter: maplebaconrae
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