Sundays are my day for cooking sauces. It’s a tradition I actually grabbed from my Italian friend Marcella. It was something we would do often, and I carried it into my Sunday routine long after we moved away from each other. It’s a nice tradition to keep her close to my heart as our busy worlds keep us distant. I make Sunday sauce from whatever I happen to have and whatever is growing in the garden, so Sunday Sauce is really about flexibility and utilizing food that would otherwise go bad.

This Sunday, I made a simple marinara made from local tomatoes. We had a tomato tasting earlier in the week. Working Food hosted this tasting for the community to come out and give feedback about what they would like to see grown in the future. There’s a guy in town that grows tomatoes as a hobby and its quite a spectacle to see. But his goal is to narrow down the tomatoes that grow well, yield well, taste good, and will function well in the kitchen.

The CSA from The Family Garden here in Gainesville, Florida is loaded with basil, celery, onions, tomatoes right now, so not only does it make sense to make fresh seasonal marinara in bulk for freezing but with a staple pantry your chances of needing to go to the store is null.

To make the simple marinara, I start with mirepoix (celery, onions, carrots). I add chopped garlic and deglaze the pan with red or white wine. I tend use whatever I have opened (which coming from a Saturday night there could be multiple options, but most dry wine will work well. I added the tomatoes and herbs next and bring the sauce up to a simmer. Since these were fresh tomatoes, I let it simmer longer to reduce the moisture in the sauce.

Marinara is super versatile. You can boil pasta or make vegetable noodles, dunk a good rustic bread in it for a snack, put it over a roasted chicken breast, blend it into a soup and serve it with grilled cheese. This recipe is a good base for marinara, but remember, you can jazz this bitty up however you wish! Don’t cook in a box.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Pinch of fennel seed
• 1 large yellow onion diced
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 carrots diced
• 4 celery stalk diced
• 1 cup white wine
• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• 4-5 lbs tomatoes chopped (skinned of desried)
• 2 sprigs fresh oregano chopped
• Healthy bunch of chopped basil
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Pecorino Romano to top.

Directions:

1. In a hit pan sauté olive oil with fennel seeds.
2. Once browned, add celery onions and carrots. Cook till translucent
3. Deglaze pan with wine add tomatoes and herbs.
4. Bring up to a simmer and Cook for 30 minutes to an hour depending on thickness desired for the sauce.
5. Salt and pepper to taste. Top with fresh grated Pecorino Romano!