Monday, August 18, 2008

Homegrown Red-Wine Marinara Sauce

One of the most brilliant things of having a garden is being able to make all sorts of lovely vegetable bases, like marinara sauce, veggie stock, etc., on top of having fresh vegetables for dinner every night.

This is due to a glut of tomatoes, onions and basil. The only ingredients in here that are not from our garden is the garlic, wine and the tomato paste.

Red-Wine Marinara Sauce

1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 head garlic (6-8 cloves), crushed and chopped
1 1/2 onion, diced
12 medium sized tomatoes
salt
pepper
1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup red wine
12 basil leaves

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Prepare another large bowl with ice water. Core the tomatoes and score the bottom with an 'X'. Add tomatoes in batches to boiling water. Boil for 20-30 seconds, until the skin starts to peel away. Transfer to ice bath. Remove skin, halve tomatoes and remove seeds.

Heat large pot over medium heat. Add olive oil, swirl pot to coat. Add onion, garlic salt and pepper and sautee 5-10 minutes until onion is soft and translucent. Add tomatoes, tomato paste and red wine. Simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened. About 45 minutes in, shred and basil leaves into the sauce. Taste sauce, adjust spices as needed.

If you prefer a less chunky sauce, add to food processor or blender (let cool first if using a blender). Pulse a few times until sauce reaches desired consistency.

You can serve immediately or spoon into containers and freeze for later use.

1 comment:

Erin said...

Wow, I'm so jealous of all your fresh veggies! Living in a 3rd floor condo in Chicago does not allow much room for veggie growing, but later in life I hope to play around with a garden. I think anything you make must be 10x better when you know it's from your own garden!