My neighbor, Farmer Pauli, gave us a lot of San Marzano tomatoes from her garden. Scott and I made a wonderful home made, fresh tomato Marinara sauce with the tomatoes. I didn't hesitate one minute to click on Gina@SP Cookie Queen's recipe for Fresh Marinara Sauce. Now we didn't have 20 lbs. of tomatoes, but only about 5 lbs, but they were beauties. You would have to adjust Gina's recipe according to how many tomatoes you have.
Also, we weren't going to can the sauce, just freeze it, if we had any left. My husband likes left overs. We had enough sauce for three dinners for two people, three lunches for my husband. I even gave a container of sauce to Pauli. She has been giving away all of her tomatoes. That's just the way she is, a wonderful friend.
My husband just didn't want "plain" Marinara sauce, so we made a few additions. We had a pound of fresh mushrooms and a fresh green pepper, so they went in the sauce, as well as two links of Chicken Sausage with Jalapeno. We got them at Trader Joe's and they are wonderful, and are fully cooked. They have many varieties and are low in fat and sodium, compared to traditional sausages. We only had the ones with jalapeno, but the sausages with garlic would be good, too.
Now, I know if you are Italian, you are rolling your eyes. It was very good, a little spicy, but it added a kick to the sauce, like a Fra Diavolo sauce, "Brother Devil.". Thank you Wikipedia The kitchen smells so good as the sauce cooks away. Now if you don't want a spicy sauce, you can use a different type of sausage or meat, or make it totally vegetarian, That's the beauty of Marinara sauce. Make it your own We served this wonderful sauce over whole wheat Rotini for fewer carbs. (I now have to watch my carbs, but that's another story).
Thank you Gina for the inspiration and recipe for the Marinara sauce, and Thank you Pauli, for the gorgeous tomatoes, and all your hard work in your garden.
I did not receive any compensation from Trader Joe's. The opinions expressed here, are those of the author.
Whoa! That first picture makes me want to jump into my computer!
ReplyDeleteKatrina-Don't hurt yourself:) cooking with fresh home grown ingredients makes all the difference in the world.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it make the difference Becky, I love what you did with the sauce. I always make my sauce vegetarian, so I can use it as a base for dishes. I love trader joes, will have to look for those sausages. Will be thinking about you today, let me know later. Thanks for the shout out.
ReplyDelete-Gina-
Looks so delicious! I wish we had a Trader Joe's nearby. I have never been to one.
ReplyDeleteGina-The sauce turned out really well, thanks to your marinara recipe. Those sausages are great and they have many varieties.
ReplyDeleteJill-Trader Joe's is like a small, neighborhood grocery store with specialty items and good prices. A piece of Heaven!