I’ve used the analogy before.
There are simple recipes for cooking staples that I’ve compared to that little black dress in your closet. You know the one; it anchors your wardrobe whatever the crisis.
This is another one of those anchors, a delicious and simple marinara sauce.
Unexpected guests. Stinking work day aftermath. Whatever. This Simple Marinara has got your back.
This recipe is a Samin Nosrat recipe from The New York Times. Here is the link to the original recipe: NYT Simple Tomato Sauce. This sauce is thick and a bit sweet from long cooked onions, lots of them!, and a bit hot from chile pepper flakes. It’s perfect for an improptu plate of pasta on a stressful day and perfect, too, saucing your fanciest lasagna.
Here is the recipe as I prepared it in my kitchen.
Simple Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 6 T. extra-virgin olive oil
- 5 cups yellow onions or shallots (diced)
- Fine sea salt
- 1 twenty-eight ounce can San Marzano tomatoes (crushed)
- 4 garlic cloves (finely sliced)
- 2 T. tomato paste
- 5 large basil leaves (thinly sliced)
- 1/4 t. red pepper flakes
Directions
- Step 1 Heat 4 T. olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add a pinch of salt.
- Step 2 Reduce heat to medium low and add sliced onions. (I used a combination of yellow onions and shallots.)Cook slow, stirring often, until the onions are a little brown and tender. This will take about 20 minutes.
- Step 3 While the onions are cooking, open the can of San Marzano tomatoes. Pour the tomatoes into a large bowl and crush them with your hands. Add about 1 1/2 C. water to the empty can to recover any of the tomato juices left in the can and pour that into the bowl. Set aside.
- Step 4 Once the onions have cooked, add the four thinly-sliced garlic cloves to the pan and continue to cook for about 90 seconds. Don’t let the garlic burn! Add the tomato paste and cook for another 3-4 minutes until the mixture turns a slightly darker color. Add the crushed tomatoes and water to the mixture and season with salt. Add basil and red pepper flakes. Bring the tomato mixture to a boil. Stir the mixture often. Once the mixture is boiling, lower the heat to a simmer and continue cooking for abourt 45 minutes. At that point, the tomatoes will have lost their raw taste.
- Step 5 At this point, taste and adjust salt seasoning.Add the remaining 2 T. oil.
- Step 6 Remove the sauce from the stove and let it cool a bit. I have proceeded in two directions at this point. For a really chunky and thick sauce, I’ve pureed the sauce (in the Dutch oven) with my hand blender. For a still thick but less chunky sauce, I’ve pureed the sauce in my powerful Vitamix blender. (Cook’s Note: This is a versatile sauce. I’ve used it on spaghetti with a generous sprinkling of Parmesan. I’ve also used it in making lasagna and other vegetable dishes.)
