Our friend Sherryl Mascarinas posted this Simple Marinara Sauce recipe on the New Canaan Moms Cooking & Baking FB page and it looks great! “Basil for days…. I was super lucky enough to snatch the last bunch of beautiful fresh basil from Walter Stewart’s Market yesterday for just a mere $2.49. So today, during #winterstormSkylar, I replenished my stash of basil salt and jars of simple marinara sauce. Recipe for both in comment section.” Thanks for sharing Sherryl!
Simple Marinara Sauce
28 oz can whole and peeled San Marzano tomatoes
1/4 cup good extra virgin olive oil
6 cloves garlic, slivered
1 branch fresh basil
1 1/2 tsp. Basil salt* or kosher salt
1 tbsp. Sugar
1/4 tsp. Crushed red chili flakes
1 tbsp. Tomato paste
1. In a large bowl, crush the tomatoes with a potato masher along with the juice. Add about 1/2 cup water.
2.Using a wide skillet, heat the oil. Add garlic until ALMOST light brown.
3. Add the tomatoes with the juice/water, basil salt/kosher salt, chili flakes and sugar. Let it simmer until most of the liquid evaporates and the sauce becomes chunky. Around 20-25 minutes. Add the basil branch and tomato paste and cook for another 5 minutes.
4. Serve right away or store for canning (following canning procedure. This recipe will fill a 16 oz mason jar).
Enjoy!
*Basil salt
Kosher salt
Fresh basil (leaves only)
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
2. In a food processor, pulse together the kosher salt and basil leaves (you can determine the ratio depending on how much basil you want in your salt. The greener it becomes after pulsing in the food processor, the stronger the basil flavor) until basil is incorporated in the salt.
3. Spread the basil salt mixture evenly on a cookie sheet and bake until the basil pieces are DRY (otherwise will mold in storage). Around 30-45 minutes.
4. Return to food processor and pulse again until fine. Store in glass jars.