Like any good Italian, my favorite cookie is my mom's. So I've been adopting her marinara recipe and trying to tweak it for even more impact.
read moreOriginal Ingredients (mom): • 10 ripe roma tomatoes • 20 fresh basil leaves • 12 cloves of garlic • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil • 56oz canned plum tomatoes • 24oz organic strained tomatoes (no sugar, preferably no salt/citric acid) • 2-3 teaspoons freeze dried basil • Pepper • Salt Original Recipe (mom): • Remove core of each tomato and "x" the bottom • Take basil leaves off stems, put in cold water (to clean) • Put tomatoes in salted boiling water for 30-60 seconds • Remove tomatoes when skin is splitting, put in cold water • Squish tomato over sink to remove skin • Peel and remove end from garlic, then slice as thin as possible • Dice tomatoes • Add 1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil over medium heat, let warm • Add garlic and keep mixing (sauté) • Once garlic is translucent/slightly brown, add free tomato and mix • Add a lot of salt • Cover and let cook for 5 minutes, medium heat (tomatoes should lose structure) • Blend fresh canned tomatoes (in can with immersion blender) • Add in the newly puréed tomatoes • Add in jarred tomatoes • Add in more salt and a ton of pepper • Add in freeze dried basil • Once fully simmering, start 25-40 minute timer (depending on size) ⁃ Leave on low-medium heat ⁃ Top should cover 3/4 of sauce ⁃ Stir regularly ⁃ If you want to evaporate water from sauce, remove top after 10 minutes. ⁃ Done when it's not strong tomato taste. May need to add another 10 minutes. • Cut basil into strips (julienne) • Add fresh basil, salt, pepper. Cover. • Leave basil in sauce for 10 minutes before serving/refrigerating. • Done! It all starts with the ingredients, so: Olive Oil: • You should think of olive oil as produce (guy from Italy quoted in NYT). It's going to not be as good after 3-4 weeks, so I should buy small quantities regularly rather than a large quantity of especially good stuff. • It should also be consumed within 2 years of bottling, so you want the newest bottled possible. • Be liberal with its usage, it seems like it's a lot harder to over olive oil than it is to over salt. • Decided to up it to 1/2 cup instead of 1/3 and it came out great, based on what I'm reading I may even want to go a lot bigger (maybe up to 1.3 cups for my batch). Can experiment. • Experimented with a lot more and it's incredible. • Lloyd Floyd also suggested I try using bacon grease in place of the olive oil one time and it was phenomenal, one of the best sauces I've made. Canned tomatoes: • https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/best-canned-tomatoes/ • Mom likes Mutti, made my first batch with them and it came out great. Pepper: • Should without a doubt not be on the largest setting. Became overwhelmed with pepper on certain bites, needs to be medium or most fine ground. Strained tomatoes: • Used Pomi for first batch and it came out great. Basil: • Didn't use freeze dried, just used a whole plant of fresh for first batch. Came out great, but I think the basil taste was barely there/subtle, which could have been better.