Marinara Sauce

Today I bring you not one but TWO fabulous things: a gardening tip and a marinara sauce recipe to go along with it. It's no secret that summer will be upon us soon, and if you planted your vegetable garden when you were supposed to (and didn't drag your feet like I did), then perhaps you will be overrun with fresh tomatoes soon.

That's where the tip comes in. If you're like me, you'll be harvesting more tomatoes than you know what to do with before you know it. Take any that you can't eat right away, wash them, dry them, and put them in a gallon size freezer bag. Store them in your freezer. Continue adding tomatoes to the bag throughout gardening season. Heck, you might even need to start other bags as the first one fills up. This will ensure that you have fresh tomatoes to use in this recipe and you can have delicious homemade marinara sauce any time of year.

Marinara Sauce

40 ripe tomatoes 

1 cup olive oil

3 large onions, minced

16 cloves garlic, minced

1 cup red wine of choice

1/3 cup dried basil

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sugar

2 12 oz cans tomato paste

1. If tomatoes have been previously frozen, thaw them, and then place them in a large pot and cook over medium heat (covered) for approximately 10-15 minutes or until tender and no longer frozen. If tomatoes have not been previously frozen, quarter them, place them in a large pot and cook them over medium heat (covered) for approximately 5-10 minutes or until tender. (You will not need to add water - the juice from the tomatoes will suffice for cooking purposes.) 
2. Assemble a food mill over the pot and process tomatoes to remove seeds and skins.
3. In a large pan, cook onion and garlic in oil and butter until onion starts to soften, about 5 minutes. Add wine to the onion and garlic mixture and cook for another 3 minutes.
4. Combine onion, garlic, and wine mixture with tomatoes.
5. Stir in basil, oregano, and salt. Cover and cook over low heat for 15 minutes. 
6. Uncover and simmer for 2 hours, stirring frequently and checking for thickness of sauce.
7. Once sauce has reached almost desired thickness, stir in tomato paste and sugar. Continue stirring frequently.

Notes:

The number of tomatoes is approximate based on the size of your tomatoes. I usually fill my 8 quart pot nearly to the top with ingredients and then let everything cook down.

You can substitute approximately 7, 28 oz. cans of tomato sauce or diced tomatoes for fresh tomatoes if fresh tomatoes are not available. If using canned tomatoes, you can skip the step with the food mill and use a handheld immersion blender to smooth out your sauce.

I like to test the thickness of the sauce using the "spoon test" - if a wooden spoon can stand straight up in the pot on its own, the sauce is thick enough!

You can process this marinara sauce using water bath canning instructions by adding 2 Tbsp. of bottled lemon juice to each quart sized mason jar before filling hot jars. Process jars for 35 minutes.

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