Italian Marinara Sauce

Ingredients

A few notes on making my own Abbate-family-style Italian marinara sauce:

• Use San Marzano tomatoes.

They’re a particular variety of plum tomatoes grown in Italy near Naples. The sweetness of this tomato is well suited for sauce.

• Use fresh herbs, it really makes a difference.

To begin, pour olive oil into a large sauce pot.

I have a 10 gallon monstrosity of a sauce pot but use the biggest one you own. If you use the entire recipe amount, you’ll need at least a 2 or 3 gallon pot so you have room to place a half chicken in along with all the liquids.

Before turning on the stovetop, put minced garlic into the oil, mix around, and then turn the heat to the lowest setting you have.

Simmer the garlic as low as possible in the oil until you begin to smell the aroma, stirring often. This should take about 10-15 minutes.

Then put shallot / onion / anchovies in the oil, turn up the heat to medium heat, cook for 10 minutes.

Add in wine, stirring often, cook down for 5 minutes.

Add in tomatoes & paste, salt, pepper, basil, oregano, sugar and herbs.

Turn the heat up to medium-high to get the sauce to a point of bubbling hot. About 20 mins.

Once the sauce is visibly hot, place the chicken in the pot. Keep on medium-high heat for 1 hour. Stir the pot every 15 mins or so.

After an hour, drop the heat back to an active simmer, put the lid on but slightly ajar to let a little steam out. Every time you take the lid off to stir the sauce, discard of any condensation to make the sauce thicker.

Simmer, stirring often for 2-4 hours.

Take off burner, let cool in pot for a couple hours, then once cooled down, package in freezer-friendly material. (You’ll have a lot to freeze).

** Option: take chicken out of the Italian marinara sauce once cooked fully through so the meat may be more tender.. I just leave it in the sauce the entire time, then shred it and make it into an enchilada!