The moment I walked into my sister's house and took a sniff, I knew what she was cooking: Toasted Garlic Marinara from The Good Neighbor Cookbook. I was excited to see how her second batch of this recipe was shaping up.
I have now tasted three different interpretations of this recipe. I've made it twice: once with canned whole tomatoes and once with fresh tomatoes I diced from Sonny's mom's garden. Both batches tasted fine, just chunkier than I was hoping for...I was thinking more sauce-like. Sonny's interpretation used fresh tomatoes that he put in a food processor before adding to the pot, but was still chunky-ish. My sister's batch used fresh tomatoes from her garden mostly (and some from our aunt's). She blanched her tomatoes first before using them for the marinara. She also spent a good chunk of time letting the tomatoes simmer and break down, but it turned out sauce-like and left me very jealous at her outcome. All three were delicious, but my sister's was the best in the texture I was looking for.
I learned that I need to have more patience when letting the tomatoes simmer...and I might try the blanching step. If I followed the recipe, it took way longer for the tomatoes to break down than stated in the recipe. One of the best things about cooking (besides eating the final creation) is learning from "mistakes", improving recipes and making it up as you go. Sonny has taught me that last one: making it up as you go. And he's right...recipes are (for the most part) general guidelines to follow. If you understand what kind of things work well together you don't have to rely on the directions so much. I hope to make another batch soon and freeze it for the upcoming winter months. I also have friends having babies and they are due later this month and want to use the marinara in a frozen meal for them. We'll see how that turns out with my crazy busy schedule.
No comments:
Post a Comment