Homemade Marinara Sauce

We love to make our own marinara sauce. This is my favorite one. We use it as a base for a lot of things we make. We actually make it and bottle it so we don't have to make it every time a recipe calls for it. We can just grab a bottle and we are good to go!

Homemade Marinara Sauce:

Ingredients:

3 1/2 pounds fresh tomatoes, a mixture of Roma or plum and beefsteak
1 Med Onion, diced
2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 or 2 Large Cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 TSP Salt
3/4 TSP Black Pepper
Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes (optional)


Directions:

1. Blanch Tomatoes (I use a method learned from Martha Stewart). She said to slice an X into the bottom of each tomato with a paring knife and then put them into a pot of boiling water and blanch for about 30 seconds. Take the tomatoes out of the boiling water using a slotted spoon and put them into an ice water bath to cool (about 30 seconds). Pull off the peels by gripping the skin between your thumb and the flat part of the knife blade, starting at the X you made.

2. Cut the beefsteak tomatoes in half

3. In your pressure cooker on sauté (we don't have that setting so we use the meat setting at 15), heat oil and add your onion. Sauté until translucent (about 5 minutes)

4. Add garlic and cook your garlic until its fragrant and sizzling, but not brown.

5. Add tomatoes, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes.

6. Put lid on your pressure cooker, secure and turn to high for 15 minutes (we use meat setting at 15).

7. When done, release pressure and carefully remove lid.

8. In batches, put through a food processor to puree slightly (unless you like a really chunky marinara sauce). You can strain out seeds if desired. We left them in, but some don't like them.

Now here's a trick I learned. When you're ready to use this, add 1 TBS butter to the mixture. Trust me, I know it doesn't sound good but it is WONDERFUL! I love it. The reason we don't add the butter to this recipe is because we bottle it and you shouldn't bottle butter. So we will add it just before using the marinara, as we are heating it up.

PLEASE NOTE: If you decide to bottle yours, please follow safe canning procedures. You can check with Ball or a proven and safe canning book. We use a stovetop pressure cooker to can ours. We are very careful because we do not want to get botulism.