Marinara Cooking Technique

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

This isn't about the ingredients of a good marinara sauce. Rather, it's about a technique that just plain delivers.

my last batch of sauce contained the usual suspects, diced tomato, tomato puree, fresh garlic, oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, onion, and ground beef, with a little salt, and a tsp. of sugar. What made this different was that I had limited time to prepare it. I couldn't use my usual favorite technique of cooking for 30 minutes, then refrigerating overnight, or the lauded slow cooking for hours. So, I turned once again to that marvelous creation, the pressure cooker. After browning the ground beef, adding all the other ingredients, and seasoning to what I like, I put the lid on and brought it up to 11.5 pounds of pressure. I cooked it at the lowest possible heat to keep the pressure regulator dancing for 20 minutes. The sauce tasted like it had been cooked for 6 to 7 hours. it was so good.

The leftover sauce was again thrown into the pressure cooker, with a cup of extra water, some roughly sliced cabbage leaves, and a quarter cup of rice. 20 minutes gave me my lunch today, a desconstructed cabbage role that tastes just like the version that takes an 90 minutes to create in the oven. Of course it wasn't as pretty, but for a lunch that's gonna be heated in a microwave, the flavor is identical.

Yep, I still love my P.C. It make great food in a fraction of the time used for other methods.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Andy M.]

The PC can really shorten cooking times. I haven't used one in decades. Maybe I should give it some thought.

On another note, I'm not used to seeing meat in a marinara sauce.

 

[Roll_Bones]

I never add meat to a marinara sauce.
Its a mother sauce.

I go easy on the herbs too. Since i am eventually going to make another dish with the marinara, I want a sauce that is accepting of more ingredients.

 

[CraigC]

No meat here either, but I do like red wine and the "bite" of some red pepper flakes in marinara. I usually make marinara specifically as opposed to making it from my mother sauce.

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

No meat in my marinara either, and the only seasonings are salt, pepper, and onion. Oregano doesn't belong in spaghetti sauce, it's for pizza.

 

[Kayelle]

Marinara sauce is always meatless.
However, Marinara sauce can be used to make a meat sauce, but then it's no longer Marinara.

 

[Aunt Bea]

I agree with Andy, I need to give the modern pressure cookers a fresh look.

If I need to make a quick meat sauce I use most of the ingredients in your basic recipe and then toss in a small can of tomato paste and some homemade beef or chicken stock. The addition of a cup or two of stock gives it that long simmered Sunday gravy taste. Dried mushrooms can also give a big flavor boost to a quick meat sauce, just crumble them up and toss them in the pot.

 

[Kayelle]

No meat in my marinara either, and the only seasonings are salt, pepper, and onion. Oregano doesn't belong in spaghetti sauce, it's for pizza.

Umm, You've said that several times now, but oregano belongs my spaghetti sauce, if not yours.

 

[TATTRAT]

Marinara sauce is always meatless.
However, Marinara sauce can be used to make a meat sauce, but then it's no longer Marinara.

Ditto.

Once meat becomes involved, it's a bolognese.

Marinara is always vegetarian.

Some sauces that are americanized, known in the North east as "Gravy" can have browned meats, but the meat is normally removed/reserved, but Americans will think of it as a "marinara", because it is tomato sauce over pasta.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

The mother sauce Tomat, as per Escoffeir - How To Make Sauce Tomat | Stella Culinary

It's similar to Sunday Gravy in that it contains tomatoes.

I called my sauce by the wrong name. It's similar to the sauce my parents made. And I agree with Kayelle, oregano is used in my tomato sauce, and my pizza sauce. I also use it in various other dishes and recipes. I like the flavor it brings.

In any case, you can use whatever recipe you like for your sauce. I was simply pointing out that the PC cuts hours worth of simmering down to 30 minutes or so.

Oh, and just for the record, if I'm taking the time to make the sauce the way I really like it, it includes the ingredients I posted, and adds rosemary, sweet bell pepper chunks, and sauteed mushrooms (protabella, common field, or white button mushrooms thank you)

The sauce is cooked just long enough for me to taste all of the ingredients in the sauce, removed from the heat, quick chilled in an ice bath, then into a sealed container and into the fridge. This gives the sauce a fresher, brighter flavor. I'm not as fond of the long simmered, or baked sauces. The flavors lose their individuality in my opinion. I like to taste everything, and be able to pick out the flavors on my tongue, and in my nose. But it can't be too acidic either. I'm picky about how I make my best sauce. And I'm sure it wouldn't be the best sauce for many of you. But that's Ok. This world is big enough for each of our favorite flavors, and then some.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Mad Cook]

Marinara sauce is always meatless.
However, Marinara sauce can be used to make a meat sauce, but then it's no longer Marinara.

I know perfectly well what marinara is and can make it in my sleep. So why, when I hear or see the word in print, do I always think of a seafood sauce ?

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Umm, You've said that several times now, but oregano belongs my spaghetti sauce, if not yours.

My recipe is 5th generation Sicilian, how about yours?

 

[Aunt Bea]

I know perfectly well what marinara is and can make it in my sleep. So why, when I hear or see the word in print, do I always think of a seafood sauce ?

Probably because mare or maris is Latin for the sea or of the sea and frutti di mare is the fruit of the sea or seafood!

 

[Mad Cook]

Probably because mare or maris is Latin for the sea or of the sea and frutti di mare is the fruit of the sea or seafood!

Yes, probably. It's one of those sticker words though that won't leave you alone.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

My recipe is 5th generation Sicilian, how about yours?

Mine is first generation Chief Longwind fo the North, Yooper, and it tastes really, really good, with or without meat, or meatballs.

This cook, who learned from her Italian husband, swears by the recipe on her site - Homemade Marinara Sauce (Or as we Italians call it, Gravy!) | Real Food Girl, and uses both oregano and basil.

This thread wasn't supposed to be about the recipe. It's supposed to be about a time saving technique, and how you can re-purpose teh left-overs.

What's going on is as if I were to say, "my version of pancakes is the only true pancake. If you don't make it my way, then you are making flap jacks, or hot cakes, or any other similar dish, but not pancakes. After all, my pancakes come out like little cakes made in a pan.

Now isn't that just absurd; or is it? Hmmmm.

Seeeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North

 

[Andy M.]

My recipe is 5th generation Sicilian, how about yours?

Is your the one authentic marinara recipe?

 

[Sir_Loin_of_Beef]

Is your the one authentic marinara recipe?

It is the one and only authentic SICILIAN marinara recipe.

 

[Andy M.]

It is the one and only authentic SICILIAN marinara recipe.

So everyone in Sicly who ever made marinara throughout history made it exactly the same way. Good to know.

 

[PrincessFiona60]

Cabin Fever...everyone outside and get some fresh air.

 

[Chief Longwind Of The North]

Cabin Fever...everyone outside and get some fresh air.

Do I get to eat ice-cold watermelon, and spit seeds at my sister, or drop a grape fizzy into a bottle of 7-UP and try to drink the foam without spilling it all over the grass. Do we get water balloons?

Aunt Pri-Fi, I want a hot dog. Can I go swimming now? Jimmy threw sand at me.

I wanna throw a girl in the river. Why can't I throw a girl in the river. Can I have more watermellon?

Seeeeeya; Chief Longwind of the North