Yummy Homemade Sauce

I meant to post this one two weeks ago, so I'll keep it short. Mike had drill, and he had been hungry for "regular spaghetti." I decided to take it up a notch and create homemade marinara and meatballs. I wanted a recipe for marinara that was reliable, but easy. We have a cookbook from Mario Batali that came in handy.

The following recipe was super-easy and super-tasty. I don't know that we'll buy marinara again. I'm not a fan of big tomato chunks, so I used my immersion blender to smooth out the chunky bits. It's really up to your personal taste, though. I doubled the recipe, mostly due to the fact that I love really saucy pasta. It was fantastic having leftovers. The sauce especially turned out extremely scrumptious, and the original recipe specifies that you can freeze the sauce for up to 6 months. We didn't have any to freeze after a week, but it's duly noted. :)

I didn't use a recipe for the meatballs, but I used 1 pound of lean ground beef, 1 pound Italian sausage, 2 eggs, chopped fresh thyme, Italian bread crumbs, and salt and pepper to taste. I rolled them into balls and baked them on a rack at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes. Add the meatballs to the sauce while it simmers.

Without further ado, here's the recipe for Mario Batali's marinara sauce (something we'll definitely be making many, many times again.)

Basic Tomato Sauce
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 Spanish onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1/2 medium carrot, finely shredded
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes

Heat the olive oil in a 3-quart saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until soft and golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.Add the thyme and carrot and cook until the carrot is quite soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the undrained tomatoes and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Lower the heat and simmer until as thick as hot cereal, about 30 minutes. Season with salt. The sauce can be refrigerated for up to 1 week or frozen for 6 months.

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