Marinara Sauce for Pasta

Marinara Sauce for Pasta

According to Wikipedia, “Marinara (English: mariner's) sauce is an Italian tomato sauce that originated in Naples, usually made with tomatoes, garlic, herbs, and onions. Its many variations can include the addition of capers, olives and spices. It is occasionally sweetened with a dash of red wine.

This sauce is also widely used in Italian-American cuisine, which has diverged from its Old World origins.

Italians refer to marinara sauce only in association with other recipes. For instance, spaghetti alla marinara literally translates to "spaghetti mariner's style" (from the adjective marinara with the feminine suffix -a pertaining to salsa, Italian for sauce), but tomato sauce alone in Italy is called sugo/salsa al/di pomodoro or pummarola (the latter being Neapolitan language).

Several folk theories are given as to the origin of this sauce: One version is that cooks aboard Neapolitan ships invented marinara sauce in the mid-16th century after Spaniards introduced the tomato (a New World fruit) to Europe. The original recipe did not contain seafood, so it was resistant to spoilage due to the high acid content of tomatoes. This made it ideal for lengthy sea voyages hundreds of years before refrigeration methods were invented. Another theory states this was a sauce prepared by the wives of Neapolitan sailors upon their return from sea.

Historically, however, the first Italian cookbook to include tomato sauce, Lo Scalco alla Moderna (The Modern Steward), was written by Italian chef Antonio Latini and was published in two volumes in 1692 and 1694. Latini served as the Steward of the First Minister to the Spanish Viceroy of Naples. This early tomato sauce was more like a modern tomato salsa.”

So much for history but I did not for once think the sauce I made regularly was Marinara Sauce! Only when I was looking for the sauce for this BM and for Kiddo’s Birthday Party that I found out I was making this sauce regularly.

But let me confess this sauce has been made by my elder one! I was not well and we almost cancelled the little ones birthday party as I could not make anything. As the initial plan was to make pasta this sauce was something that Apeksha made for Akanksha. So all Apekshas have been met, no more Asha Akansha for me!! Before you wonder what I mean Apeksha is expectation and Akansha means desire, wish!!

Marinara Sauce

Recipe Source:  Here

Ingredients:

• 1 tblspn olive oil
• 1 onion 
• 1 ½ tsp garlic, minced
• ½  cup  red wine(I did not use)
• 12 tomatoes, peeled, de-seeded and crushed 
• ½ tsp flat-leaf parsley, dried
• 1 ½  tsp salt
• ½  tsp kali mirch/ kali miri/ pepper corns,  freshly ground

Method:

• Heat the olive oil in a large kadhai/wok.
• Add the onion and sauté on low flame til translucent.
• Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
• Add the wine, (if using else jump to the next step) and cook on high heat, keep stirring and scraping till almost all the liquid evaporates.
• Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.
• Cover, and simmer on low flame till sauce thickens.
• Serve hot with spaghetti or rigatoni pasta.

Come back tomorrow for another delicious sauce....

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