marinara yumminess

HOMEMADE MARINARA THE EASY AND DELICIOUS WAY

you will need:
KITCHEN SUPPLIES:
- a largish pot with a heavy bottom (a pressure cooker without the lid is a good choice, that's what I usually use, but anything that can hold several cans of tomato bits is great)
- a knife to chop things up

FOODISH SUPPLIES:
REQUIRED:
- canned tomatoes! I liked diced and crushed for this, and stewed are also ok if you like bigger chunks of tomato. you can pick up ones that have added garlic or bell peppers, or are fire-roasted, or whatever you like!
- red wine! it doesn't have to be great wine, five buck cab or shiraz or sweet vermouth are all fine.
- garlic and herbs! garlic powder or diced garlic (comes in cans or plastic jars) are fine, and easier to deal with than cloves; the herbs you might want are oregano, marjoram, and basil. I'm a freak and don't like pepper but most people will probably also like black pepper in there. this is all going to be to taste but I usually use a teaspoon or two of each, especially oregano, and as much garlic as I want.

PRETTY GREAT BUT NOT REQUIRED:
- olive oil, for cooking veggies and meat in before adding the tomatoes and wine
- veggies and meat (my reccomendations: yellow or white onion, zucchini and/or spinach, ground beef or italian seasoned ground turkey. my mom likes bell pepper and mushrooms. no reason you can't have all the things!)
- cheese! you can buy a bagged italian blend of shredded cheeses, or tubs of shredded hard cheese, or grate it yourself off a wedge, whatever you want.

DIRECTIONS:
Chop up anything that needs chopping up! This is probably going to be zucchini and onion; cut the zucchini into halves or quarters longways, then into thin-ish slices (nothing more than a quarter inch wide, or it may not cook through), and the onion HOWEVER YOU LIKE BEST you'll cook it first so it doesn't matter too much. (I guess also bell peppers if you're adding them? idk i don't like bell peppers but iF YOU DO MORE POWER TO YOU)

(If you've got something to shred the zucchini, like a kitchenaid attachment or something, that's cool too!)

If you've got onion, cook that in the bottom of the pot first with olive oil and garlic. It'll turn translucent when it's mostly cooked. It's going to cook with other things for a while, too, so it doesn't have to be totally done when you start adding other things.

Add your meat (if there is going to be meat) and brown it in the olive oil and a splash of wine; add some seasonings now, but not all of them. The meat SHOULD be finished cooking, without any pink left anywhere, because ground meat is pretty hazardous if it's undercooked.

Open the cans of tomatoes and dump them in there with more wine (add this early so it has time to cook off the booziness), your other veggies or mushrooms, and some more seasoning. For herbs, instead of dumping them straight in, pour some into your (clean!) palm and rub them between your palms to crush them, or be fancy and use a mortar and pestle to grind them up some more. It makes their scent and flavor stronger! Also you smell like herbs until you wash your hands!

Heat it up and let it simmer for a while! And make sure to stir it. Feel free to taste it whenever and see if you think it needs more garlic, herbs, salt, if the zucchini needs to cook longer, whatever.

(Sometime in here you should be making your pasta! Spaghetti is obviously traditional, but whatever you have in your cupboard will work.)

When it's done, add your cheese and stir it in. If you want to add some yogurt or cream at this point, that's pretty good, too!

Drain your noodles, then toss them with olive oil or a bit of butter (especially if you're going to have leftovers; the oil helps to keep them from sticking together when you reheat), serve on whatever dish you want, then spoon however much sauce on top as you want. Eat. Be happy.