Marinara Sauce

Marinara Sauce
Ingredients:


3 tbsp olive oil

1 medium carrot

1 celery stalk

1 large garlic clove

1 medium onion

1/4 red bell pepper

2 14oz cans diced tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste

11/2 tsp sugar (or brown sugar)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1 tbsp dried basil

1 tbsp dried parsley

1 tsp dried oregano

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

2 bay leaves

Optional: basil oil





Directions:

I always add vegetables to my sauces. I just miss lots of flavor in a pure tomato sauce.



Peel the carrot and cut everything in coarse pieces.



Transfer it to a food processor (or chop it by hand). Grate the garlic over the bowl because you don’t want someone biting down on a big hunk of garlic. It’s nasty, really.



Blitz a couple of times. And there we are, the perfect veggie base for a sauce.



Heat the oil and sauté the vegetables over low heat for 10 minutes.



Add the tomato puree and cook for a minute to sweeten it up.



Pour in the diced tomatoes, these were pomodori. My marinara sauce is usually very thick, if you like a thinner sauce add another can of diced tomatoes.



In goes the sugar, salt, pepper, nutmeg and herbs. You can add brown sugar as well, it tastes great.



Give everything a good stir and bring it to a boil.



Add the bay leaves. Simmer the sauce, over low heat, for 45 to 60 minutes.



Here’s my secret ingredients. After roughly 20 minutes I add 2 tbsp basil oil. If the sauce gets too thick during cooking, add water.



After 45 to 60 minutes it’s a wonderfully thick, fragrant sauce. Discard the bay leaves.



This is fully optional and it will change the structure and color of the sauce, mind you. I use my immersion blender to puree the sauce a little. Check the seasoning.



I especially like pasta with a simple marinara sauce, some grated Parmigiano and a little extra basil oil drizzled on top. Garlic bread on the side. Yum.