Carolyn's Marinara

[Queenie]

My sister was married to an Italian and got the basic recipe from his mother.  I made a number of changes to suit me, so I now call this "my" recipe!!  :-)  Anyway, it is easy and absolutely maaaahhhvelos!!

Carolyn's Marinara

1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
2-3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 large can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
2 small cans (6 oz.) tomato paste (or 1- 6oz. can)
4 cups water
1 Tablespoon dried Basil
1 Tablespoon dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon dried Parsley
1 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons Splenda
1 1/2 teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper (less if you don't like it spicy)


In a large saucepan saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are clear.  Add the remainder of ingredients (you can rinse the cans out to "start out" the 4 cups of water).  I like to cook this for at least 1/2 hour, but as anyone who has ever made Italian food knows, the longer you cook it, the better it is!


Bon Appétit!!

Carolyn

[TNangela]

I cant wait to try this over spaghetti squash!!  I absolutely love that stuff!!Thanks Carolyn...
ANG

[Gregg]

My sister was married to an Italian and got the basic recipe from his mother.  I made a number of changes to suit me, so I now call this "my" recipe!!  :-)  Anyway, it is easy and absolutely maaaahhhvelos!!

Carolyn's Marinara

1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
2-3 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 large can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
2 small cans (6 oz.) tomato paste (or 1- 6oz. can)
4 cups water
1 Tablespoon dried Basil
1 Tablespoon dried Oregano
1 Tablespoon dried Parsley
1 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
1 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons Splenda
1 1/2 teaspoons Crushed Red Pepper (less if you don't like it spicy)


In a large saucepan saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are clear.  Add the remainder of ingredients (you can rinse the cans out to "start out" the 4 cups of water).  I like to cook this for at least 1/2 hour, but as anyone who has ever made Italian food knows, the longer you cook it, the better it is!


Bon Appétit!!

Carolyn

Put this over spagehtti squash and add some large shrimp and it will blow your mind. My honey made this tonight...there are no leftovers.

Gregg

[HarleyGrandma]

When I saw the turkey meatballs, I was thinking maybe they would do great in the pizza soup recipe?? what do you think?

[Queenie]

Hi Harley Grandma,

If you're talking about Niki's meatballs - YES!!  That's what I put in it when I made the Meatball Minestrone.  Fantastic!  I would think that any meatballs would be fantastic...

My sister makes this recipe (totally blended up) and makes mussels marinara - out of this world!

Gregg - the shrimp - WOW - I will definitely give that a try.

Carolyn

[mrsj]

Carolyn,
I made your Marinara sauce today.  Delicious! 
I used it over baked chicken but I definitely look forward to trying it with Niki's Meatballs (once I find it) and the shrimp and spaghetti squash Gregg suggested...........it will be my first time with spaghetti squash.

Are there any other ways that you use it Carolyn? 

mrs J

[nyKath]

You can use it in the lasagne recipe from the book, and I just like to toss my sauce on salad when the rest of them are eating spaghetti or ziti. Tastes great! I use it as my "dressing." ....NYKath

[Queenie]

Mrs J

I use it in many things - you can make lasagna with it like Kathy said - I love vegetable lasagna, using zucchini instead of noodles.  Also, because I have a dairy allergy, I sometimes substitute tofu (with peccerino romano, etc. mixed with it) for the ricotta cheese.

Last night I was making Niki's meatballs and had company show up - so instead of sitting there forming tons of meatballs, I threw it in a loaf pan and made meatloaf out of it!  Super!  And I put the marinara over it for lunch today. 

I cooked a turkey breast last week and put it over that.  My sister grinds it until there are no "lumps" in it and makes mussels marinara - the best that I've ever tasted.

I've even put it on top of beans and corn!  It is such a good sauce!  I've yet to put it on salad like Kathy, but I imagine it would be good!

I hope you make it again and again!

Carolyn

[niki]

i always love to hear what different people do as far as cooking goes....i might get an idea that would make my life easier(ALWAYS looking for that)......
  carolyn,do you make the meatballs with ground soynuts?.......if you tell me you do,i think i'm going to ground soynuts instead this time.....when i ground soynuts to make soynut butter,i noticed how long it took to get a ground consistency....i'm going to get my food processor out instead of using the blender so i don't burn the engine out and i'll make a lot...it'll enrich the quality of the meat(protein) as long as you tell me it tastes good............niki

[Queenie]

Yes, Niki - I used ground soynuts - that's what your recipe says to use.  I also mixed ground turkey breast and extra lean ground beef together when I made these.  It was some GOOD meatloaf!

Mrs. J - as I was making Little Mary's spinach artichoke dip tonight, I figured I'd mention that I also put some of the marinara on the side and ate it that way - it was great!

So pass the bowl - put that marinara on everything!!  LOL!

Carolyn

[niki]

no,the reason i ask is that it also says ground roasted chick peas and i wasn't sure if you found them in virginia beach...i've only used chick pea flour to make the meat balls...but i wanted to try using crushed soynuts....so, good, that's what i'm going to do.......thanks, carolyn.....niki 

[DEBBIEWEBE]

Carolyn,
My sister used your Marinara Sauce recipe last week for the Meatball Minestroni recipe she gave me a while back and said it was DELICIOUS!!!!  Thanks Again
Debbie

[Queenie]

Awesome, Debbie!! 

That's what I use too - the first time was because I had it on hand... now, I keep some in the freezer at all times!

I'm glad she liked my marinara as much as I liked her soup!!

Carolyn

[DEBBIEWEBE]

Carolyn,
That is such a good idea to make up a big batch and freeze for future meals.  The meatballs freeze well too.  I have such a big freezer out in the garage that I dont have stocked full of frozen pizzas and loafs of bread anymore so filling it up with soup and veggies, beans, ground chicken and frozen fruit helps keep the house supplied with lots of good things to eat fast!!! This season has been a struggle.  With all the Birthdays....my husbands was Friday, my sons last month......  I have half a dozen Christmas parties coming up to go to now in the next two weeks.  I have had less than stellar performance on LDL lately but luckily Ive eaten enough soup and veggies and smoothies between accidents to be maintaining my 20 lb loss.  I defineatly make better choices now than in the past.  Frenchfries/potatoes,white bread and rice and pasta are gone from my diet completely and I know thats a GOOD THING. I stills struggle with sweets and cheese from time to time but I am on the right track.  I know I will succeed eventually since it was so easy to give up the majority of the carbs without missing it at all. 
Hope Everyones doing well as I am busy working, shopping and decorating and seems like I am too tired at night to computer lately.  Not to mention it gets dark so early now it just feels good to go to bed.
Love and God Bless
Debbie

[niki]

debbie,the other day i looked to see when you posted last to see if you were alright,but i saw that it wasn't that long ago.....if you go off even a little,make sure you overdose after that on the allowable stuff....some people might think that i'm rigid in that they never read that i went off or am tempted to go off let's do lunch........BUT,the truth of the matter is that i'm afraid to eat even that one little thing because i'm afraid it'll send me into a tailspin binge and i'll be like ray milland in "the lost weekend".......niki
 

[Queenie]

Boy, Debbie - I wish I had a great big freezer - well, maybe not too big, because things would get old too quickly, but at least more than what I have with just my fridge.  I tend to make things and eat them till they're gone, but with the quantity of my last marinara, I ended up freezing most of it. 

When I saw you on the boards today, I was really happy.  It made me wonder, as did Niki, how many days it had been since you posted.  You were missed, my friend.

Carolyn