Easy Marinara Sauce

This simple marinara sauce comes from Lidia’s Commonsense Italian Cooking: 150 Delicious and Simple Recipes Anyone Can Master. It’s just got a few simple ingredients but if you start with good canned tomatoes, you’ll end up with a tasty marinara sauce.

It’s great as is or you can add cooked meatballs to it and simmer together for a while or use as pizza sauce. It freezes well.

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Marinara Sauce

This simple marinara sauce works great with pasta and as the sauce for homemade pizza.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 5-7 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
• 1 28- oz can crushed tomatoes or whole tomatoes crushed by hand
• 1 cup water
• a pinch of red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 sprig of fresh basil

Instructions

• Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a large skillet, then add the garlic. Stir and let cook just a minute then add the tomatoes. Rinse the tomato can out with about a cup of water and add that to the pan. Sprinkle in the red pepper flakes and salt, then add the basil and stir it all together.
• Simmer about 15 minutes, stirring now and then. Discard the basil before serving.
• This makes enough for 1 pound of pasta, about 3 1/2 cups.