Buca di Beppo Marinara Sauce

Contributor: Victoria Blanchard
Source: Buca di Beppo Cookbook

Yields 6 cups

Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
1 red onion chopped
6 garlic cloves
2 (28 oz) cans crushed tomatoes
Salt to taste
3 Tbs chopped fresh basil (dry works, too)

In a 3-quart saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, and cook until golden brown, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Add the tomoatoes and salt. Bring to a boil, then cook over low heat for approximately 30 minutes, stirring often. Turn off the heat and add the fresh basil.

Comments: Ry used to make marinara all the time, but since I've been the household cook for more than the past year, we've been using Hunts canned spaghetti sauce for everything since I was so intimidated to try to make sauce as good as his. If you're the same way, let me assure you: this recipe is incredibly easy, pretty fast, and SO WORTH THE EFFORT! I made a half batch two weeks ago and for the first time we used fresh sauce on our homemade pizza dough and we were going out of our minds. The sauce has kept in the fridge for the two weeks since, and has been enough to make 3 large pizzas (each week I make one red sauce pizza and one white sauce pizza). I vowed on Facebook to never go back to canned sauce except under conditions of duress! I will say, the flavor of the sauce changes if you store it in the fridge versus using it fresh. The flavor just gets heavier with time. But still, so good!