susanscooking.com

There's nothing like a great homemade Marinara sauce that's been cooked for hours. 



 I base my recipe on this one from Cooking Light magazine.

It is rich tasting and complex when cooked for the full 3 hours.  I make a few changes to the recipe, though.  Here's the original recipe from Cooking Light with my changes in brackets.

Marinara Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil (I leave this out and dry or water saute onions instead

• 6  cups chopped onion (about 3 medium)

• 1  tablespoon  sugar (I substitute 1 TBSP date syrup)

• 1/2  cup  dry red wine (you can leave this out, but it is better with)

• 1  tablespoon  extra virgin olive oil (I leave this out)

• 2  teaspoons  dried oregano

• (I add 1 fresh bouquet garni... see Preparation notes)

• 1  teaspoon  salt (I leave this out)

• 1/2  teaspoon  dried thyme

• 1/2  teaspoon  dried marjoram

• 1/2  teaspoon  dried basil

• 1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

• 1/4  teaspoon  crushed red pepper

• 6  garlic cloves, crushed

• 2  (24 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes, undrained

• 2  (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, undrained

• 2  (6-ounce) cans tomato paste

Preparation

Heat oil (or dry saute) in a Dutch oven over medium heat; add onion and sugar (date syrup). Cook 30 minutes or until golden, stirring occasionally. Stir in wine; cook 1 minute. Add remaining ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 3 hours, stirring occasionally.

I think that a bouquet garni adds to the sauce:



In this case it has:  fresh parsley stems, fresh thyme sprigs and a couple of bay leaves.  (Read about Bouquet Garni here.)

Great sauce.  Sometimes I leave the garlic cloves whole in the sauce.  It gives a slightly milder sauce for some dishes.  Also good is adding a lot of smaller dice mushrooms after you've cooked the onions down partially.  By the time the mushrooms cook down over 3 hours, they add a great 'meaty' texture.