26 October, 2020
Kay’s Marinara Sauce or Gravy
This is a tremendous marinara sauce or you might call it gravy depending on your locale. My mother has made this for my family my entire life and now I make it for mine.
Ingredients
4 large cans unsalted crushed tomatoes, possibly 1-3 cans tomato paste
4 tblsp minced garlic
1 tblsp red pepper flakes
3 tblsp basil
2/3 cup Olive oil
Directions
In a large pot heat up olive oil. Add 4 tablespoons of minced garlic. When garlic is browned add red pepper and basil and cook for 1 more minute. If you like spicy you can add more pepper flakes.
Add crushed tomatoes and possibly water for consistency. Various crushed tomato brands can be quite thick. Also don’t let be over liquidy. If you find your crushed tomatoes are very liquidy, you should add tomato paste to firm it up. My mother swears by a large 6 lb 11 ounce can of bountiful harvest concentrated crushed tomatoes and a cup or so of water. It’s basically a paint can of tasty tomatoes. Makes a very large batch so you have leftovers to freeze.
Bring to boil then let simmer for 1 hour minimum.
If you are adding meatballs or sausage I suggest cooking the meat and then adding that to the sauce. My mother often will pour some of the sauce out to a secondary pan and simmer the meat in there not to affect the whole batch. The meat enriches the flavor while cooking the sauce.
You can use this on spaghetti, lasagna, homemade pizza, on zucchini with a little Parmesan cheese, etc. If you make a huge batch you can freeze some and reheat later. It’s so tasty.
Here is a picture of the lovely lady with some happy grandkids during a trip to California.
