Cecconi’s Marinara Sauce Recipe
At least once a month my apartment fills with the delicious aroma of sautéed onions and garlic.
You can bet that one of those aroma-filled days is a sauce-making day. It’s become a monthly tradition to make a giant pot of marinara to last for the upcoming few weeks. Freeze, thaw, and create. The marinara we make is an excellent base for just about anything — chicken, sausage, shrimp, beef, turkey, veggies — you name it. We’ve even used it as a pizza sauce in a pinch.
Oh, and when I say “we” make, I really should probably say Mark makes. It’s really his baby. I would like to try this with fresh tomatoes sometime. Hopefully sometime I will have a garden with which to do such experimentations.
M. Cecconi’s Marinara
Ingredients
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
- 4 large cans of diced tomatoes
- Italian seasoning
- crushed red pepper
- salt and black pepper
Directions
- In a very large pot, heat olive oil over medium.
- Add garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
- Toss in onion and sauté for 3-5 more minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste (usually a teaspoon of each).
- After onions turn glossy, add tomatoes and stir.
- Add Italian seasoning (usually 2-3 tablespoons) and a dash of crushed red pepper*.
- Reduce heat to low and put lit on pot.
- Let simmer for several hours, stirring occasionally.
- Once the sauce has been cooked to the consistency of your liking, let cool and pour 1-2 cups at a time in a blender and blend to a consistency of your choice (I like mine chunky, so I blend half the sauce and mix in the rest).
- Separate into smaller containers and freeze until use.
*If you like spicy, add 1 teaspoon. If not, go with 1/2 teaspoon. It won’t taste very spicy until after the sauce has been simmered and blended.
