Not Yo Mama’s Marinara Sauce

This is a simple but versatile sauce that will have you quickly tossing any of its store bought competitors in the trash. Delightful and hearty, serve warm over anything from omelets to fried mozzarella cheese. (What? We have recipes for both of those on this blog? Fantastic! How convenient!)

Ingredients:

Tomatoes

An Onion

Garlic

Salt and Pepper to taste

Basil

Olive Oil (or coconut oil!)

Step One: Dice & Chop

It doesn’t really get much easier than this recipe, but you’ll be extremely satisfied with the results. It won’t take long to prep, so start preheating your pan now. Throw a little olive oil in there, maybe a tablespoon, and put it on medium heat. Did you know that extra virgin olive oil goes bad really quickly? That’s because it’s minimally processed and there’s still chlorophyll in it. So if you use extra virgin olive oil, make sure you’re using it up pretty quickly. Once it goes rancid, it’s obviously no good for you. It’s actually better if you’re going to COOK with olive oil, to use regular olive oil instead of extra virgin. Two much better choices would be coconut or palm oil.) First, grab your onion. Depending on personal preference, you may want to do a little less onion or a little more tomato, but this combo works for us. Chop up 1/3 of the onion into small chunks. Do the same with the tomato, trying not to spill all the juice on the counter- you want it in your pan! Mince up some garlic, too. We throw in five or six cloves, because marinara should have a decent amount of garlicy-ness. You can also supplement with garlic powder or salt, if you prefer!

Step Two: Sauté and Season

Throw all of your veggies and garlic in the pan and stir ‘em up. Grab some basil (fresh chopped is preferable but dried will work, too) and add a liberal amount, a teaspoon or more. Everything is about personal taste, I’m just trying to set some general guidelines for you. Continue cooking on medium until the tomatoes have broken down a bit and the onions are translucent, stirring often to keep anything from burning to the pan. This takes about 5 or 6 minutes. Now turn it to low and let it simmer 5 more minutes.

That’s it, it’s done! Remove from heat and serve warm. This sauce can be frozen and reheated later. As long as you promise not to do it in a microwave! Microwaves are bad. It can take a little getting used to living without one in our micro-centric society (I once found a cookbook entirely on microwaving food!) but you CAN do it and it doesn’t take all that much effort. Eating food out of the microwave is about as nutritious as munching on cardboard. Wait, no, maybe the cardboard is better. The radiation kills anything that used to be good for you and mixes up molecules in ways we just don’t really understand. My mama always said, if you wouldn’t stick your head in it, don’t stick your food in it! (Well, no, she didn’t. But I’m going to say it from now on!)