Marinara Sauce II

From Special Sauce

Another week closer to Nathaniel's birthday and I have lapsed greatly in my preparation for this challenge! A few months ago I wrote down a bunch of recipes from the library, and found that pile when I cleaned off the coffee table. I got the ingredients for several sauces and decided on Marinara Sauce II from The Complete Book of Sauces. I chose it because it incorporated wine and mushrooms, both of which have been absent from the sauce experiments so far. I used a red wine that we were given as a welcome to the neighborhood gift from our neighbors and I have already forgotten what it was - it was very dry.

From Special Sauce

The sauce had to simmer quite a while, and it was definitely chunkier than I was looking for. I could have blended it before serving but was interested in following the recipe as written first. Nathaniel and I both agreed that the wine did not improve the sauce, but rather tempered the acidity of the tomatoes in a bad way. It tasted more like wine veg sauce than a nice tomato sauce. I wonder if I had added more acid (lemon, vinegar) if this problem would have been solved. I also slightly wonder if the mushrooms were partly to blame. Hard to tell, but this was the least favorite of the sauces so far.

Marinara Sauce II
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
3 lbs Italian plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 6-oz can tomato paste
2 tsp chopped fresh oregano
2 tsp chopped fresh basil
3/4 cup dry red wine
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

In a large, heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the onion and garlic until just transparent, about 5-8 minutes. Stir in all the other ingredients except the mushrooms, and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Add the mushrooms, season with salt and pepper to taste, and simmer 5 minutes longer. Yield: 3 cups

So this is actually helping, by knowing what we don't like, I'm starting to narrow it down.

I don't like onions in large chunks. The flavor of the veg like carrot and mushroom is nice but the large chunks is not ideal.

The texture of the "Yellow" tomato sauce was better because it was thin and coated the pasta perfectly. I could adopt that technique to any flavor combo, I think, the adding of water and oil and emulsifying it at the end.

Wine - no. A good tomato sauce does seem to need some acidity.