Marinara Sauce recipe.

Everybody loves Italian food, the secret is fresh ingredients, big flavours and simplicity, and it doesn’t get any more basic that a simple Marinara sauce.

I may be known for my award winning Pizza, but I would like to share some ‘non pizza’ recipes which you wont find in a jar.

People love my Marinara Sauce recipe.  (This isn’t my Pizza sauce)  I’m often asked how I make it.   It took me a few years to finally get it to where i wanted it, and all I did to achieve it, was to take away all that extra stuff I was adding to it before  – I just took it back to basics

So, here are the basics

The amount of sauce you make is up to you, I cook big batches of it and freeze it

– Good quality tinned tomatoes
– Cloves of Garlic (3 Cloves per Can)
– Water (half a can per can of tomatoes)
–  Olive Oil (not extra virgin)
– Pinch of Salt, Pepper and Sugar

With a hand blender and measuring jug, blend the Garlic into the Oil to create an emulsion.

Pour the ‘Garlic Oil’ into a cold pan, and then put on a low light until it starts to sizzle (this gentle heating process allows the Garlic and Oil to infuse for longer without burning, nothing worse than burnt Garlic – bitter)

Meanwhile with the same jug and blender, blend your Tomatoes to a liquid, or pulse if you prefer a bit of texture.

When the Garlic Oil is hot and sizzling, turn the heat up full.. after a few seconds pour in the Tomatoes, they should sizzle and react with the Oil. (by this point your kitchen will smell amazing!

Pour in the water, season with the salt, pepper and sugar and stir.

Once the sauce comes to boil, turn the heat to minimum, or transfer to a smaller hob, and let the sauce gently simmer, remember, low n slow!

During the simmer try not to keep stirring the sauce, this allows the water to rise to the top and evaporate. If you get any orange foam that settles on the top, skim this off as this is the acid from the tomatoes.

Simmer until most of the water from the top has evaporated, (for a big pan this could take a couple of hours, keep testing and tasting)

When you’re happy with your sauce, turn off the heat and glug in a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil and stir through.. This adds gloss and flavour. (tip: The sauce always taste better the next day)

Like a simple curry sauce, this is your basic start to any sauce meal you wish to create.

For example.

Put your pasta into a big pan of salted boiling water…

Sauté your chosen ingredients in a pan, add the Marinara Sauce and simmer, as a result, you will have a fresh pasta sauce ready in the time it takes for the pasta to cook.

Or you can simply dress your cooked pasta with the plain Marinara, and torn Basil leaves.