Basic Marinara

An authentic Italian marinara sauce is much easier than you might think. To the eye, the sauce looks like nothing but tomatoes. But the flavor has a hint of garlic. This puzzled me for awhile when we lived in Italy. Finally, the chef at a local restaurant showed me how it was done.

You smash a couple cloves of garlic. Toss them in a pot with olive oil, heating on medium low until the garlic is golden. Remove the garlic. Let the oil cool a bit so it doesn't splatter. Add tomatoes of your choice. (I like tomato puree, but you can use whole cherry tomatoes, or chopped tomatoes.) Add a generous amount of salt. If your sauce tastes at all bitter, add more salt. Heat until warm throughout. Then, if you'd like you can add fresh or dried basil and oregano. Super easy! I like to add dried basil and oregano if I'm using it as pizza sauce. Otherwise, I leave it plain. There aren't really measurements, but if you must have them: 3 cups tomato puree, 2 cloves garlic, 2 Tbsp olive oil, 1/2 tsp each dried basil and oregano (or 3 leaves fresh basil, chopped)