Five Dinners to Make with Marinara Sauce

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5 meals 1 sauce, basil, easy pasta, eat, food, italian, marinara sauce, Parmesan, pasta, penne, quick cooking, sauce, sausage

So earlier this week I wrote about my simple and delicious marinara sauce. It is a staple recipe to have in your repertoire. Takes 30 mins to make, inexpensive and it freezes very well.

But I also wanted to show you how easy it is to change it up with a few simple ingredients to create 5 different meals. 1 sauce = 5 meals. Curious? I thought so.

First of all you start off with my marinara sauce. It is simple to make and extremely affordable. The whole pot, 8 cups of sauce cost me 8$ to make.

1. Arrabbiata Sauce (Arrabbiata means angry in Italian)

In a medium saucepan, heat 2 Tbs. olive oil over medium heat. Add  (1/2 cup) finely diced pancetta. If you can’t find pancetta you can use bacon or prosciutto. Add 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 tsp. of red chile flakes; cook until the garlic is golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 1/2 cups of marinara sauce and 1/4 cup torn basil leaves and simmer ~ 10 mins. Toss with 1 package of cooked and drained pasta. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Arrabiatta Sauce

 

2. Penne Alla Vodka

So I always have vodka in my house, but I have never used it to cook with until now. Heat 2 Tbs. olive oil over medium heat. Add  (1/2 cup) finely diced bacon, cook for 3-4 minutes until the fat starts to render out. Add 1 finely diced onion, 2 cloves of minced garlic, and 1 tsp. of red chile flakes; cook until the garlic is golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 cups of marinara sauce and 1/2 cup of vodka and reduce for a few minutes. Add in 1/2 cup of heavy cream and a pinch of nutmeg. Let simmer for 5-10 minutes on low heat. Toss with 1 package of cooked and drained pasta (penne works well). Serve with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Penne Alla Vodka

3. Rose sauce (pink sauce)

In a large sauté pan over medium heat add in 1 cup marinara and season with salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Simmer until hot. Add in 1 cup of heavy cream and a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Turn heat down to low and simmer for 5- 10 mins. You can use this sauce for pasta, on top of sauteed chicken breasts, on gnocchi, on spaghetti squash. It is so versatile.

Rose sauce on gnoochi

4. Mussels Marinara (Fra Diavolo)

Heat 2 TBS of olive oil in a large sauce pot and sauté 3 cloves of minced garlic for about 2 minutes, being careful not to brown it. Add 1 cup of white wine (Pinot Grigio works well) and bring the heat up to high. Bring the wine to a boil and simmer for another two minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low and add 1 1/2 cups of marinara sauce. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and 1/2 tsp of crushed red chile flakes. Once the sauce is at a light simmer, add the mussels (4 pounds of cleaned mussels), give them a stir, raise the heat to medium and cover the pot. Cook for about 6 to 8 minutes, or until all of the mussels have opened, then stir in the parsley. Transfer mussels to a platter. (Discard any mussels that do not open.) Serve with the warm baguette.

Mussels Marinara

5. Sausage and Peppers

This is a classic dish and super easy to make. In a large saucepan with a lid, heat 2 TBS olive oil over medium heat. Cook 4 Italian sausages to brown all sides. Remove and set aside. Turn heat to high. Add 1 sliced pepper and 1 sliced onion, cooking until slightly tender and browned, about 4-5 minutes. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Stir in 1 cup of marinara sauce and a pinch of pepper flakes. Reduce heat to a low simmer and return sausages to the pan. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, until sausages are cooked through. You can serve the sausages whole or  sliced. Serve with polenta or pasta or on a fresh crusty roll.

Sausage and Peppers

As you can see you can make 5 dishes with one sauce. Enjoy!

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I am a girl who loves food. I grew up with a Mom who was an excellent cook. She wrote a cookbook when I was a child, and as they say, the rest is history. Started a catering business in 2005 and haven’t looked back. I am a mom to 2 beautiful girls and I want them to love food as much as I do. In the meantime, I love life and love my job @ http://www.monicaskitchen.com

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Simple and Delicious Marinara Sauce

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eat, food, Italy, marinara sauce, pasta, pasta sauce in minutes, summertime, tomatoes

There are so many ways to make marinara sauce and everyone has their personal preferences. A marinara sauce can be whipped up fresh pretty quickly – here’s how.

4 Ingredients

There are a few must haves to make the best marinara sauce in my opinion.

1. San Marzano tomatoes
2. Fresh basil
3. Parmesan cheese rinds
4. Immersion blender

Parmesan cheese rinds as such a depth of flavor to the sauce

I definitely prefer canned San Marzano tomatoes. These tomatoes are picked at their peak in the Campania region of Italy, where they grow in the volcanic soil. They are a low acid, meaty tomato and make an excellent tomato sauce.  Most grocery stores carry the canned San Marzanos now. I bought a HUGE can at Costco for 6$ 100oz. That was a steal because the local grocery stores sell a 28 oz can for 4.99.

If you use tomatoes that you feel are a little acidic, the trick is to add just a little sugar to the sauce.  My mom used to do this all the time. It softens that acidity.

Ingredients:

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
8-10 garlic cloves, peeled
1 100 ounce can peeled Italian plum tomatoes, seeded and lightly crushed, with their liquid
kosher salt
Parmesan cheese rinds
20 fresh basil leaves
freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Directions:

Heat the oil in a large nonreactive saucepan over medium heat. Mince the garlic cloves with a knife, toss them into the oil, and cook, about 2 minutes.

Carefully slide the tomatoes and their liquid into the oil. Bring to a boil, and season lightly with salt. Lower the heat so the sauce is at a simmer, and cook, breaking up the tomatoes with a whisk or spoon, add the Parmesan cheese rinds, cook until the sauce is chunky and thick, about 30 to 40 minutes. Stir in a huge bunch of basil (mine was from my garden) about 5 minutes before the sauce is finished. Taste the sauce, and season with salt and pepper if necessary.

Mince your garlic cloves

Saute garlic in olive oil for 2 minutes. Be careful not to brown the garlic or it will add a bitter taste.

Add the tomatoes

Add the Parmesan cheese rinds to the sauce

Add basil at the end of cooking

Eat

My best tip for making a marinara sauce, though, is to puree it.  Some people think it’s bad to puree the sauce, but I think that’s just wrong.  If you are using canned whole tomatoes, there is something about pureeing the sauce that deepens the flavor.  It makes a big difference. An immersion blender is the handiest thing to have for this.  If you don’t have one, get one – you will love it.  It can be very messy to transfer hot soup or sauce to a blender.

The sauce freezes very well.  I let my sauce cool overnight in the fridge with the Parmesan cheese rinds still in the sauce. I like freezing the sauce instead of canning it, just because it’s so much easier.  I just pour the sauce in a Tupperware container and throw it in the freezer. Or to make a lovely gift for someone, pour the sauce into some jars, add a label and viola! Dinner is served.

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I am a girl who loves food. I grew up with a Mom who was an excellent cook. She wrote a cookbook when I was a child, and as they say, the rest is history. Started a catering business in 2005 and haven’t looked back. I am a mom to 2 beautiful girls and I want them to love food as much as I do. In the meantime, I love life and love my job @ http://www.monicaskitchen.com

Easy Pasta in 15 minutes

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basil, cooking, cooking in 15 minutes, easy pasta, fresh cooking, fresh pasta, mushrooms, pasta, tomatoes

I had a friend pop over for lunch last Wednesday and I needed to make us a quick bite to eat.

The day before I had bought a small little pack of fresh pasta for 2$
and some portobello mushrooms. With a few other ingredients the results were delish!

Pasta with mushrooms, tomatoes and basil

I love using mushrooms because they can actually replace the meat in a dish. Portobello mushrooms when they are cooked have a meaty texture.

Tip! When prepping your mushrooms scrape off the dark gills of the mushroom to prevent everything in your dish from going black.

Ingredients:

3 large portobello mushroom caps
1 onion sliced
Diced up smoked Serrano chili or 1/2 tsp of chipotle powder
Handful of fresh basil
Handful of sliced cherry tomatoes
Splash of white wine or sambucca or both
Heavy cream ~ 3/4 cup
Parmesan
Salt and pepper
Fresh pasta

In a sauté pan on high heat add a touch of oil and sauté the mushrooms until they start to color. Add onions. Salt and pepper. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add wine or sambucca. Put pan back on heat to reduce. Add Serrano pepper or chipotle pepper. Add cream and reduce heat to low.

Sauce simmering

In a pot of salted water cook fresh pasta. It takes minutes to cook. I LOVE fresh pasta because it is a great chew to it which goes well with this sauce.

Pasta cooking

Once pasta is cooked, drain and add directly to the sauté pan that has the mushrooms and sauce. Coat the pasta with sauce and let it absorb. Toss in the sliced cherry tomatoes and the fresh sliced basil. Let heat for a few more minutes and put in pasta bowls, top with Parmesan and serve! Delish!

Toss pasta with sauce

This dish takes 15 mins to make. Super fast, easy and tasty, and you don’t even miss the meat. I promise.

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I am a girl who loves food. I grew up with a Mom who was an excellent cook. She wrote a cookbook when I was a child, and as they say, the rest is history. Started a catering business in 2005 and haven’t looked back. I am a mom to 2 beautiful girls and I want them to love food as much as I do. In the meantime, I love life and love my job @ http://www.monicaskitchen.com