The Best Marinara, Tomato or Spaghetti Sauce

Right about now you’re probably thinking to yourself “yeah right” as the world best does get throw around quite a lot, especially when it comes to recipes. But before you stop reading, and wonder of to search another ‘best’ recipe let me explain to you why I believe this simple tomato based sauce is really the best. The two most important keywords here are basic, and delicious. The sauce only requires four ingredients and can be a base for pretty much any tomatoes sauce you imagine, the possibilities are endless. Of course the sauce also works a it is, and quite frankly I think it’s really the best in its basic form.  But be careful once you try it you might never want to go back to the jar sauces again, even the top shelf ones.

So the magic ingredients are canned whole tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil, onion, and garlic.

I really enjoy Cento San Marzano tomatoes as their quality seem to be fairly consistent (if you have experience with canned tomatoes you know this can be  problem), are widely available, and they have basil inside which is a big plus considering its sometimes hard to find fresh basil. Of course this doesn’t mean you can’t add more basil, as beauty of this sauce is that you’re in charge. I think this is main reason I can’t eat jarred sauces anymore . It seems that the companies just add so much sugar and other ingredients to their sauce that it loses its basic flavor and because another commercial mediocrity.

Enough about the sauces, let’s start cooking.

First cut up a half of an onion which equals roughly half a cup (or if you’re like my wife and prefer less onion use a quarter). Grab a pan, pour in a 1/4 up of extra virgin olive oil, throw in the onions, add a pinch of salt, and cook on low heat for 10 minutes, siring occasionally

Chop up some garlic, this time I used 3 gloves but you can use how many you want, anything from 1 to 5 is acceptable. After the onions have been cooking for 10 minutes throw in the garlic, and cook for 2 more minutes. But before you do that make sure you prepare your tomatoes.

To do that grab a bowl, empty the can inside the bowl, and just squeeze or squash the tomatoes in your hands to the consistency you want. I personally like my marinara to have a few little chunks, but you can make it how you like it. Also if you really want you can use a hand blender or a regular blender to puree the tomatoes, but personally don’t like that method as the tomatoes lose their texture and get foamy.

Once all the ingredients are together, bring it to boil, put the heat on the lowest setting and let it simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.

After that season to taste, and if you like you can add some oregano or pepper flake for extra heat.

Serve with Parmesan cheese, and enjoy!