Frank's Marinara Sauce
Submitted by clb
Slow-simmered marinara sauce with roasted garlic, anchovies, Italian plum tomatoes, and a strip of lemon peel for depth. Rich, savory, and worth the wait.
YIELD
1 servingsPREP
70 minCOOK
60 minREADY
130 minThis marinara starts where most don’t: with a full head of garlic roasted until it’s soft and sweet, then pureed with anchovy fillets into a smooth paste. That paste gets blended into warm olive oil before anything else hits the pot. It’s a flavor base that gives this sauce a savory backbone you won’t get from raw garlic tossed into a pan.
The anchovies melt completely into the sauce. Nobody will taste “fish." What they will taste is a deep, rounded savoriness that makes the tomatoes taste more like themselves. And that strip of lemon peel simmering alongside the basil and oregano? It brightens the whole pot without making it taste citrusy.
Let this simmer low and slow. The sauce needs a full hour on the stove after reducing to develop its character. Rushing it leaves you with something sharp and one-dimensional.
Chef Tips
- When roasting garlic, the cloves should squeeze out like butter. If they’re still firm, give them another 10-15 minutes.
- Taste before salting. Anchovies bring plenty of salt on their own, and different brands vary wildly in salinity.
- Use San Marzano-style plum tomatoes if you can find them. They have less water and more flesh, which means a thicker sauce.
- Remove the lemon peel strip before serving. It’s there for aromatic infusion, not eating.
Variations
- Add a pinch of red pepper flakes with the basil for a fra diavolo-style kick.
- Stir in a splash of red wine when adding the tomatoes for more complexity.
- Blend the finished sauce smooth for pizza sauce, or leave it chunky for pasta.
Ingredients
Directions
To bake garlic, first, cut the tops off the garlic heads and place them into a shallow baking pan with the cut sides up.
Then pour olive oil over the garlic, cover the pan with aluminum foil, and bake at 400℉ (200℃) for 1 hour.
When the heads are cooked (they will become soft and mellow), set them aside and let them cool to room temperature.
Purée 6 cloves of garlic and the anchovies together.
In a 5-quart Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and gently blend in the puréed garlic until smooth.
Then add both the peeled tomatoes and the tomato paste, along with the onions, and cook over medium heat until the mixture begins to reduce and thicken.
Now, add the sweet basil, oregano, and lemon peel and stir everything together well.
Then cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for about 45 minutes.
At this point, add the black pepper and season the sauce with salt to taste (it may not need any, depending upon the saltiness of the anchovies).
Then cover and simmer for another 15 minutes.
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