Quick Easy Marinara Sauce

With Helene Spoto

How many times have you opened a jar of sauce because you did not have time to make any? If you think you don’t have time make fresh Marinara sauce, think again. This sauce is easy, healthy and delicious. In the time it takes to boil the water and cook the pasta, you can have fresh, homemade Marinara. You’ll never want to open another jar of sauce again!Loosely translated from the original Italian marinara sauce means “sailor style,” deriving its name from the fact that Italian sailors used to make it for voyagers since the acidity from the tomatoes acted as a preservative. The basic ingredients today include tomatoes, garlic, herbs and onion. It is a basic building block sauce and Helene Spoto shows how to do it easily and quickly. This video was filmed in the Kitchen Showroom at Baron's Major Brands Appliances, Salem, NH. You can obtain more information at their web site; www.baronsmajorbrands.com.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
Kosher salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat the oil with the garlic in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. Cook until the garlic starts to soften, about 3 minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, salt, pepper and sugar.
4. Raise the temperature to medium high and bring to a gentle boil.
5. Cover the pot, reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
6. Serve over your favorite pasta.

Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of Helene Spoto, Helene's Custom Cuisine, 2011.

Proprietor & Cooking Instructor, "Helene's Custom Cuisine - Personal and Business Culinary Services."

Helene is still surprised how she became a cooking instructor. She always loved to cook, however, having a busy career as co-owner of Sentry Financial Planning in Burlington & Danvers; she didn’t have much time to spend in the kitchen. Looking for ways to simplify her cooking while still making great food, she learned to adapt recipes in order to make them quick, healthy and still taste great. Helene was so excited about her discoveries she began sharing them with family and friends. She had no idea that this hobby would turn into an opportunity to show so many people how easy this can be as a cooking instructor for the past six years.

With Helene’s Custom Cuisine, her goal, whether it’s a private or group cooking class, interactive dinner party, team building event or corporate on-site cooking demonstration, is to help people discover that preparing delicious food can be done quickly and easily with great results.

Still, the most important three words to describe my cooking are: Quick Healthy Delicious

She lives in Andover with her husband, John.