More often than not, I use jarred marinara sauce. It's a lot easier to open a jar than to cook it myself, right? But then I ran across a recipe for marinara sauce by The Naptime Chef and featured by Recipe Girl. It's oh so good and simple enough that it can be "doctored" to your own tastes. I generally just follow the recipe on Recipe Girl's site.
Unfortunately my gardening helper has been overzealous in watering my basil this year, so it's looking awfully yellow and spindly right now. This led me to use dried basil the last time I made a batch of this sauce. Not quite the same punch of freshness, but dried will still work.
I keep an eye out for the store brand crushed tomatoes to go on sale (last time it was for $1 a can, saving me 89 cents a can!). Then I buy 4 - 6 cans of crushed tomatoes at a time. I make one batch of marinara sauce and set the rest of the tomatoes aside for later batches.
Each batch yields me roughly 6 cups of sauce, which I divide into three 2 cup servings and freeze. That means 2 cups of sauce costs me roughly 40 cents. Considering the cheapest marinara or spaghetti sauce I can find costs $1 a jar or can, I'm saving 60 cents per meal.
Each batch yields me roughly 6 cups of sauce, which I divide into three 2 cup servings and freeze. That means 2 cups of sauce costs me roughly 40 cents. Considering the cheapest marinara or spaghetti sauce I can find costs $1 a jar or can, I'm saving 60 cents per meal.
I usually do this while I'm cooking supper, so it takes me very little extra time to set the pot of marinara on to simmer for 45 minutes. By the time supper is done, the marinara is too. I can let it cool while I'm eating and package it up as I'm cleaning up the kitchen after. It's very nice to be able to set a package of marinara in the fridge in the morning and have it ready to use for supper that night.
Find the whole "Working Ahead" series here.
the colour of your sauce is spectacular. Have a great week.
ReplyDeletePS It would be neat if you followed me back.