We recently did a cooking class for our Sunday School class and taught them how to make marinara. For sanitation purposes, Jay always uses ExamGard gloves. They are perfect for not wanting to get your hands dirty.

How to make your own marinara sauce:

Step 1

Gather the following ingredients: EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), Angela Mia crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, also from a can, fresh basil leaves, chopped garlic (you can use this from a bottle), salt and pepper to taste. For the cooking class, we used iodized salt. For our own personal use, we use kosher sea salt.

Step 2

Heat your pan over medium heat. Put in about 1-2 tablespoons of EVOO. When the oil starts to run a little (starts to slightly streak), it’s hot enough. Can you tell by the picture that the oil is heating up in the middle?

Step 3

Add 1 teaspoon tomato paste. You can really tell that the oil is nice and hot now. See the ripples?

Step 4

Add the garlic. It’s roughly two tablespoons.

Step 5

Stir.

Step 6

Add two tablespoons crushed tomatoes. Stir.

Step 7

Chop basil with knife. If you like leafy basil in your sketti, don’t chop it as much. If you like small bits of basil in your sketti, chop it a while until it gets the size you prefer. (Is this too obvious?)

Step 8

Add the basil to your pan. Stir.

Step 9

Now this step is optional, depending upon your taste buds. Jay really taught me to appreciate a slightly sweet spaghetti sauce. I was used to the acidic jarred/canned sauce. Growing up we were very poor, and my mom’s spaghetti was cheap and tasted great. Ah, how my taste buds have matured. So in this step, you can choose to add raw sugar. You can add anywhere from 1-2 tablespoons. I tried to get a good picture of him pouring the sugar in, but he moves so fast, it’s hard to get a good shot. You can kind of see the sugar melting in the pan in the picture below. Stir in the sugar. (Again, this step is optional.)                                                                                                                                                                                          “To determine if you want sugar in the sauce, what should we do class?” asked the teacher.                                                                                                                                                            “Throw it on the cupboard?” replied David.                                                                                     “No, we do that with packaged spaghetti to see if it sticks. If it sticks, it’s cooked. If it doesn’t stick, it’s not cooked and you’ve made a mess along with wasting a noodle. We taste it!! You can also taste the sketti to see if it’s done, instead of making your kitchen a mess.”

Not sure if you want sugar or not? Taste it. It’s simple.

Step 10

Add your noodles. Pictured here are the noodles Jay made for the cooking class demo. We let our Sunday School class taste it. And they LOVED it!!! Stir your delicious homemade noodles in the sauce.

Step 11

Add delicious parmesan cheese (how much is up to you). Stir. We actually prefer Parmigiano-Reggiano freshly grated on top of our spaghetti. We own two microplanes and one grater just for this. The microplanes are super easy to use. We buy white cheddar cheese (did you know real cheddar cheese is not yellow?) in a block, because it has less preservatives than already shredded cheese. We shred our cheese ourselves. MMMM mmmm.

Now you have all you need to enjoy a delicious marinara. This sauce is delicious on French bread. Especially if you brush olive oil on it with a bit of garlic before you toast it. Who else is hungry?

Here is the recipe for us “regular” folk:

You will need 2 tablespoons EVOO, 1 teaspoon tomato paste, 2 tablespoons garlic, 2 tablespoons garlic, handful of basil (or less, depending on how you like it), 2 tablespoons sugar (optional), homemade pasta, parmesan to your liking.