Marinara Sauce Attempt

While there are some fantastic advantages to dating a cook, there are some disadvantages as well. I get spoiled with amazing food, on-site food expertise, and someone who enjoys doing a lot of the cooking work (in a quarter of the time it would take me). That may not sound like much of a disadvantage, but it means that when my chef is at work (which as anyone in the restaurant industry knows-- is a lot of the time), then I am at loose ends in my kitchen and often scrounging for edible scraps.

Today, I found myself searching through the fridge and trying to decide whether the jar of pickles or the last ancient fossilized piece of pizza called to me more. As it was already a good 90+ degrees in my kitchen, I figured "hey, what's a little more heat" and began making pasta. Of course, there was no sauce in the house, just noodles, so I attempted to whip up a quick marinara sauce in the stifling heat.

First I chopped an onion and 4 cloves of garlic. I began sautéing the onions in a bit of butter and olive oil while I chopped some carrots and some fresh basil and oregano from my wilting herb plants. (I would have added fresh thyme as well, but my chef, it turns out, is not as gifted with plants as he is with food and it died while I was away camping.)

I added the garlic to the pan for a bit, and then added the carrots and herbs. Then, I poured about 1/2 cup of an old opened red wine into the pan and let it cook off.

I added a can of diced, unflavored tomatoes (I know, I know, but I didn't want to run to the store for fresh tomatoes) and let the whole thing simmer while I started the pasta. I also added a bit of water, a large pinch of brown sugar, salt, pepper, and a few additional spices. Once the carrots were soft, I used an emulsion blender to make the sauce smooth.


I finished the pasta and ate. It wasn't as good as a 5 course gourmet meal but it was certainly better than gnawing on old pizza.




After cooking something, I often discuss the recipe and technique with Ken. He has a lot of helpful comments and usually manages to not sound patronizing. I've written a few of his suggestions below.

-dice the veggies very small
-use celery as well as carrot and onion
-sweat the vegetables in a bit of butter until they're completely soft and starting to brown
-then add garlic (raw or roasted as is your preference)
-add any whole dry spices
-use a bit of tomato paste and brown it in the pan
-use fresh tomatoes if possible
-use granulated sugar instead of brown (although, personally, I prefer the smokey molasses taste so I'm not changing that)
-also ken says to use ground beef (he's a really big fan of meat... as a matter of fact this is where his helpful comments ended because he started ranting about how delicious different meats were.)