Marinara sauce
Quick & easy red sauce for pasta. Meatless tomato sauce does not benefit from long simmering;Â this one takes about 20 to 30 minutes to cook. I usually start the water for the pasta first, then start the sauce while the water heats up.
Ingredients:
- 1 large can plum tomatoes.
- A couple of cloves of garlic.
- A few anchovies (packed in oil).
- Enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pot.
- Salt to taste (approximately 1/2 tsp, depending on saltiness of anchovies & tomatoes)
- Hot pepper flakes to taste
Pour the olive oil into a saucepan & heat.
Peel & chop the garlic & add to the pan. Let the garlic cook until it just begins to brown.
Add the anchovies. Mash them with a wooden spoon, or better, a wooden spatula. Both the anchovies and the garlic pieces will dissolve into the sauce later on, so don’t go too crazy with the mashing.
Immediately add the tomatoes. Either chop them roughly before adding them, or chop them in the pot with the wooden spatula.
Add salt to taste if desired. Some tomatoes are packed with salt, some (mostly the Italian imports) are not.
Add hot pepper flakes to taste – this shouldn’t be overtly spicy, but a little heat can be nice.
Adjust the heat till the sauce is just boiling. Cook for about 20 to 30 minutes.