We’ve already explained how to make a delicious tomato sauce – ideally enough to keep in stock:
It does take quite a while, though.
The so-called ‘marinara’ is quicker to make; it originates from Naples, or southern Italy, and is thought to have been created in the 16th or 17th century. At that time, Naples was one of the first places where tomatoes were used in cooking on a large scale.
‘Marinara’ literally means ‘in the sailor’s style’ (from ‘marinaro’ = sailor). It is thought that the sauce was prepared by families of fishermen and sailors because it can be cooked quickly using just a few ingredients that keep well.
With the great wave of Italian emigration (particularly from southern Italy) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the sauce made its way to the USA, where it became a cornerstone of Italian-American cuisine. It is incredibly versatile, whether served on its own as a sugo or used as a base for other dishes. That’s why we like to cook it in large batches and freeze it in individual portions. At the moment, we’re harvesting our last of the basil, which works out very well timing-wise.
We use large tins (800 g) of top-quality peeled whole tomatoes. San Marzano is the recommended variety. The only other ingredients are olive oil, garlic, salt, dried pepperoncino (optional) and, of course, basil. Dried oregano is a suitable alternative; as always, further details can be found at the end of the recipe.
In a pot that is as large and wide as possible, we start by gently heating the olive oil over a low heat (3 out of 10), crumble the chilli into it and allow its heat to infuse into the oil, ensuring it is evenly distributed later on. At a low temperature, you can easily leave it to stand for 15 or 20 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, turn up the heat slightly and give it a stir.
Next, add roughly chopped garlic – and plenty of it. Once again, you want the flavour to develop and spread, but the garlic mustn’t brown, as this would make it bitter. So we’ll keep the heat low and let time do the work for us. If you’re in a hurry, do as before and deglaze everything with tomatoes before the garlic browns.
Before adding the tomatoes to the pan, we crush them between our fingers – we want the sauce to remain chunky. Then we add salt and stir thoroughly; we now turn up the heat so that everything simmers gently and the tomato juice reduces (our setting: 5 out of 10).
If you’re in a hurry – you know how it is. You can make a marinara in 20–30 minutes, but taking your time often results in more flavour, and that’s certainly the case here. At this stage, we simply leave the sauce on the stove for half an hour or more, stirring only very occasionally and checking the temperature. It does need to simmer gently; you don’t want to splash tomato juice all over the kitchen.
The final ingredient is a generous amount of basil – at least 1–2 large sprigs per tin of tomatoes. If you don’t want the herbs in the sauce later on, add the whole sprigs with the stems and remove them afterwards. We just roughly tear the leaves and leave them in.
Again, there’s no need to bring it to the boil now; a very gentle heat will do. We simply turn the hob down to the lowest setting and leave it – whether for another hour, two or three, it doesn’t matter.
Then we let the sauce cool completely and portion it into bags; for us, 500 g at a time is a good amount. We freeze it, which gives us more flexibility in the kitchen over the next weeks or months.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for just under 2.5 litres):
120 ml top-quality extra virgin olive oil
Optional: 3 small dried pepperoncini
12–15 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
3 large tins (800 g each) of top-quality peeled tomatoes (we use San Marzano)
3 tsp salt (taste at the end)
3 handfuls of basil (alternatively: 1–2 tsp dried oregano)
