Mason-Dixon Recipes

Marinara Sauce

Italy called and said it was hungry.

         — Chandler Bing, "Friends"

Marinara sauce is descended from a tomato-based sauce that probably predates the 19th century, originally used for seafood. It could not have been invented before the 16th century when tomatoes, a New World food, arrived in Europe. The Spanish brought the tomato back to Europe and introduced them to the Spanish kingdom of Naples around 1550. The tomato became popular there, which is where marinara sauce supposedly originated. However, It took 200 years before the tomato became popular in most of the rest of Europe. By the time that large numbers of southern Italians emigrated to America in the early 1900s, the sauce was such a way of life that they made it a classic in this country as well.

The name “marinara” comes from the word “mariners” or "sailor's style." Sailors and fisherman, who were the backbone of sea trade at that time, would use the sauce on their freshly-caught fish. The main ingredients of oil, tomato sauce, garlic, and dried herbs traveled well and didn’t spoil easily. The ingredients could be assembled quickly and easily, in about the same time it took pasta to cook, and the two together made a tasty, filling, and inexpensive meal for men at sea.

Marinara is a the grand Italian opera of the Italian sauces, stronger than pizza sauce, not as loud as spaghetti (Bolognese) sauce. It's a simple and unadorned sauce that sings when poured over meat and cheese. That makes it perfect to use in baked pasta recipes, chicken/veal/shrimp parmigiana, with meatballs, lasagna, or when you need a quick dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks or anything you like to serve with sauce. Remember though, while it is used over meats, it never contains meat directly in the sauce.

The beauty of this sauce is that, with a few additional ingredients, it can be converted to a different sauce. Add red pepper flakes and you have spicy Arrabbiata sauce. Add anchovies in addition to the pepper flakes and you have Puttanesca sauce. However, if using marinara as a base sauce for these and other sauces, the oregano and basil herbs become intrusive—consider skipping them.

The minced carrots disappear quite quickly and brings a natural sweetness and complexity to the sauce. Its better than the odd spoonful of sugar some people like to add. This is one of those invisible ingredients that lifts and balances the garlic/onion/tomato trio and brings them all together.

INGREDIENTS

2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1/2 red onion, finely diced
2 tbsp olive oil
¹/₃ cup carrots, minced
¹/₂ tsp salt
¹/₂ tsp dried basil leaves or 2 tbsp fresh basil
¹/₂ tsp dried oregano or 1 tsp fresh oregano
¹/₄ tsp garlic powder or 3 cloves garlic, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Sauté onions in olive oil just until they sweat. Add in chopped garlic cloves and continue to sauté. Watch out that the onions or garlic don't burn. Then add the other ingredients and let it simmer. Reduce the sauce by cooking it down for 15-20 minutes. This concentrates it, giving it a powerful, homemade flavor. Then let it sit. The longer it sits, the deeper the flavor.

If you serve Marinara with pasta, reserve a small amount of water used to boil the pasta. The starchy water binds with the pasta and makes a good addition to your sauce. You don’t have to save all the water, because too much water will alter the taste of your sauce, but about ¹/₄ cup is enough to have a beneficial effect.

Do not pile naked pasta onto a plate, ladle sauce on top, and serve it. Cook the pasta until al dente, drain it, toss it with the sauce, and leave it sit. Aside from the satisfying firmness of the pasta, the purpose of al dente is to retrieve the pasta before it’s completely cooked, and let it absorb the sauce as a finishing step.

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