I have to apologize. Seriously. To all of the people who followed me at the beginning when I was first writing this blog. I mean, I thought I was a good photographer. I really did. I had spent years taking pictures of my kids and my dogs. And I took lots of pictures on vacations. So that made me experienced, right?
Then came food photography, which comes along with having a cooking blog. I thought it would be fairly straight forward. Mostly because I was one of those who’d always taken photos of my food at restaurants, and photos at farmers’ markets. I certainly didn’t think I was a pro by any means, but I definitely didn’t realize how bad I was.
Maybe it’s for the best, because otherwise I might not have pursued the whole food blog thing. Because unfortunately, to have a cooking blog means you have to know how to cook, you need to be able to write, you should be somewhat of a food stylist, and you have to take good photographs. I had 2 out of 4 going for me. But like I said, ignorance is bliss.
I didn’t realize how bad I was until I first went back to look at some old posts of mine from 2012. And I nearly fell off my chair. I’m not kidding. It wasn’t the subject matter, it was those awful photos.
So here is my marinara post again. Hopefully you never saw the old one. My marinara really is so good, and so easy to make, that I decided to offer up a new post on this delicious red sauce.
Marinara sauce can contain quite a few ingredients. My marinara contains three ingredients. There might be some Italians rolling in their graves when I make this, but that’s ok. No two living Italians can agree on what a marinara is comprised of, so I’m off the hook. I’m not sure Italians really call anything marinara, besides. I think it’s an American word.
My Marinara
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil*
5-6 garlic cloves, minced
8 ounces high quality canned tomatoes or tomato sauce
Pinch of salt
First, heat up the oil over medium heat in a medium-sized saucepan. Add the garlic.
Stir gently and wait just until the oil warms the garlic and you can smell it, then immediately pour in the tomatoes. This should only take about 30 seconds. This is my technique for sautéing garlic because I do not like the taste of burnt garlic, and garlic can burn quickly.
Stirring gently, heat the sauce and let it cook for about 10 minutes. It will thicken a little. (An inferior, more watery tomato sauce will take longer to thicken. If it’s too watery, try adding a little tomato paste.) Add the salt and stir.
And so, that’s it ! This sauce is fabulous for a chicken or veal Parmesan, simply with pasta, as a dip, or even as a pizza sauce.
But it’s my favorite with any kind of pasta.
San Marzano canned tomatoes are high quality, but I also love my canned New Jersey tomatoes!
If you don’t want to call it marinara, don’t. Just call it the best red sauce you’ve ever tasted. You’ll thank me!
