Marinara Sauce Recipe For The Motivated

This recipe for my homemade Marinara sauce (technically a meat sauce, Marinara has no meat) has evolved over 35 years. Ok, I'm sharing. But, most folks won't bother with it because it takes a little work.
Work meaning: It's not a ten minute meal recipe. Lot of stuff goes into it. Everything is cooked and spiced separately. You'll be at it for awhile.
There are no tomatoes in this Marinara recipe because they have a tendency to water the sauce up. I prefer a thick, thick sauce. There are black olives in it?? There are mild peppers in it. It is somewhat spicy as recipes go. I spice it up more to get rid of a bland tomato sauce taste than to make it rip roaring hot.

Extra-Virgin Olive oil

One very large onion (finely chopped)

Four gloves of garlic (minced)

One whole red, yellow or orange pepper (diced)

Two pounds of mild or hot Italian sausage

Two pounds of hamburger

Any kind of pasta

Pound or more of fresh mushrooms

Four 29 oz cans of tomato sauce

One 6 oz can of black pitted olives

New Mexico Ground Chili Pepper

Chef Paul Prudommes's Pizza & Pasta Magic

Italian Seasoning

Parmesan cheese (use good stuff)

Get yourself a large stockpot or sauce pan. I have an 8 � quart pot I use. It is more of a big sauce pan than a stock pot. We are quick to freeze recipes that we can't eat over a couple of days.
Put 4 tbsp of the olive oil into the pot. Add the finely chopped onion and minced garlic. Cook until caramelized.
Add diced red, orange or yellow pepper (cored and seeded). Cook an additional 2-3 minutes. These peppers give your sauce a slight sweetness.
The easy way is to throw all the meat into the pot and cook it along with the onions and other ingredients. I cook both the hamburger and sausage separately, not together. Add any quality spice to the hamburger, drain both.
In the meanwhile, slice mushrooms. Cook the mushrooms in a separate pan with olive oil. Saute until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
Add the tomato sauce to the main pot, along with the cooked hamburger, sausage and mushrooms. Slice up the olives into three parts and add to the pot.
Next, add Italian Seasoning to taste. Be careful, it can be overpowering, so sprinkle lightly�.it takes awhile for it to blend in. I like to add a couple of teaspoons of red chili pepper, along with a teaspoon or more of Prudommes's Pizza & Pasta Magic.
Really there is no need to simmer the sauce. I never serve it on the same day that it is made�.let all the flavors mingle overnight.
Cook the pasta to your preference. Add the sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan.
This marinara sauce recipe freezes real well and you can serve it up for quite a spell after you initially make it. We not only use this marinara sauce recipe on pasta, we use it for omelets and Italian-style sandwiches.

Labels: Homemade Marinara Sauce, Marinara Sauce Recipe, Marinara Sauce Recipes, Meat Sauce