Thursday, September 10, 2009

MARINARA

Good Morning.  Here it is the weekend (almost) already.  Time does fly.  Yesterday I gave you the recipe for light as a feather Gnocchi.  When I make any kind of pasta it is served with my family recipe sauce which takes all day to make, but is truly to die for.  When I am pressed for time I make a quick, fresh sauce of some kind.  Some, just tomatoes, garlic and fresh basil tossed with the hot pasta.  Some with pesto.  There are a number of quick dressings for pasta.  Today I give you one that you can cook up in an hour or so.  It is simple and tasty and much healthier than any jar sauce.

Start with a good EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).  Finely chop an onion, a carrot, and a stalk of celery.  You can find this trio (or the trinity as we call it) already done for you at Trader Joe"s in the veggie section.  This will save you more time.  If you are not pressed for time do it yourself.  Saute the trio in the olive oil, chop 2 or 3 cloves of garlic and add to the mixture.  Adding the garlic at his point will keep it from burning.  When the veggies are tender, add a 32 ounce can of Italian plum tomatoes.  Chop some fresh basil and add to the sauce.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Cook for about an hour.  Take off of the stove and put it into a blender.  Pulse on low (put a kitchen towel over the top of the blender, when blending anything hot).  Pulse until blended, pour back into the pan and cook for about 15 minutes.  This is a great  easy, fresh tasting dressing for your pasta.

You can make this ahead and have it when you need it.  It is always better to use fresh ingredients, and control what goes into your food, especially salt.  Also, you avoid eating things in jars that you can't even pronounce.

Have a great weekend.  Be sure to drop back in on Monday.  Football season is upon us (YEA) and I will give you some great ideas for game day.

Ciao for now.  Eat healthy my friends.
Grayce

1 comment:

  1. I was thinking about the "family recepe sauce", the one that takes all day to simmer and where you have to stir it occasionally with the "special" wooden spoon (to keep it from sticking to the big sauce pan), the smell of that sauce cooking, just the aroma is worth $100.

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