Best Easy Marinara Sauce

Here we go! This is my first food blog. Every New Year, I think to myself “you should start blogging about food” when I’m surrounded by my new cookbooks, but somehow I always talk myself out of it. Apparently in 2020, I got the confidence to start sharing about my food passion.

My love for cooking started at the age of 12 when I learned to cook my favourite supper, which was spaghetti. I grew up eating this simple meal. The ingredients were ground beef, diced up onions, 2 cans of Aylmer tomato soup and 1 box of spaghetti. You begin by sautéing the ground beef and onion until cooked and then add the tomato soup. Stir and let simmer while the pasta is cooking. Once the pasta is done, strain the spaghetti and add to the sauce. Stir everything until well combined. My kids call it Meteghan (where I grew up) Spaghetti. I make it often for them and they think it’s the best thing.

I do enjoy eating it especially when I’m in Meteghan with aunt Esther or family. My taste of food has changed and I always try to add healthiness to my recipes. I question the salt intake and ask, is there enough veggies in here? Yes I know I’m weird. I don’t like eating pre-packaged food.

Travelling in Europe when I tagged along with my husband on his business trips, the marinara sauce ALWAYS tasted amazing. Recipe reading and trying different recipes, I was able to come up with my own version of the sauce. A couple of years ago, when I was in Boston, while my husband went to his conference sessions, you could find me at the Barns and Nobles drinking a Starbucks coffee in the cookbook section. It’s truly a magical place for me. I bought the cookbook Lidia’s Favourite Recipes. Here’s the link to the cookbook.

Trying a few of her amazing pasta sauce recipes, I came up with my own.

Here’s the recipe!

From scratch Basic Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 can of San Marzano tomatoes
• 1 onion diced
• 2 medium carrots minced
• 2 celery minced
• 6 garlic cloves
• Salt
• 1/4 cup Olive oil
• Chilli flakes
• Fresh basil

Instructions:

1. I like to cut and prep all my ingredients first. Dice the onion, mince the carrots and celery. Set aside. Peel the garlic cloves and mash them.
2. Using a sauce pan, add the olive oil. Let it get warm and add the garlic. Watching them super carefully, let them get a light brown. It can take a few minutes. Don’t answer a text because the garlic can burn super easy. Once you get the garlic light brown, add the carrots, onions and celery. Sauté for 3-5 minutes until softened. Season with salt and add 1/4 tsp. of chilli flakes.
3. Add the San Marzano tomatoes. Stir, and once it’s boiling, simmer covered for 20 minutes.
4. Add fresh basil and simmer another five minutes. Once everything is cooked, using an hand held blender, blend the sauce until a smooth consistency.

You can add vegetables, seafood, or ground meat to the sauce and serve with pasta or use in other dishes that require a tomato sauce. It’s also a great sauce for eggplant or chicken parmesan. It’s truly my favourite. When I need a pasta sauce I make it first thing in the morning and continue my routine while it simmers.

I hope you enjoy it! What is your favourite childhood recipe? I would love to hear.