Sketti from Betty

Ok, ok, ok.

So my name isn't really Betty (except to my grandfather when I was itty bitty) but this is my own recipe for a basic marinara for spaghetti. I've tried a handful of spaghetti sauce recipes, and while each one has it's own merits, I've never hit upon the perfect taste that made me think, Mmm. That's the stuff. When in doubt, test it out-- that's what I always say. (Ok, ok-- I never say that. But you get my drift.)

Having combed the internet and various cookbooks for suitable recipes, I felt the subject was well-traversed and I was ready to make my own variation. It seemed that the sauces I loved (like Genova's marinara, which you can find at places like Farmer Joe's and Encinal Market and the occasional Nob Hill or Pak-n-Save) all have the same base: Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, white wine and butter or oil. Many of the recipes I've tried have ended up being too tart, to acidic, or too sweet. I think the acidity came from the tomato paste that most recipes called for, and the sweetness came from the sugar they added to counteract the acidity. I knew that that I'd have to do something about the acid (see: aging esophagus) and I also knew that I wanted a richer flavor than plain old sugar could provide. One of my favorite previous attempts utilized brown sugar, and so I went with that in my base as well. A co-worker suggested molasses, but as there wasn't a jar of it in my pantry (for shame!) I stuck to my inital plan and stayed with the dark brown sugar.

Of course, every good tomato sauce needs a lot of tomato. I went with canned, crushed tomatoes and one small can of diced.

In the end, I was pretty stoked about this latest round of sauce and I think I'm going to try and improve on it next time. I prefer something a with a little chunkiness, but my tomato-phobic boyfriend disagrees. Since I make him cook with the leftovers, I puree the sauce, but you could certainly leave it chunky if you like. This made enough sauce for two rounds of spaghetti with turkey, and two rounds of raviolis. I always like to add some crusty bread or toast and a salad to round things out, but sometimes a little parmesan is all you need.

Without further adieu: Sketti from Betty.

Tools

Cutting board, chef’s knife, shredder, large heavy pot, measuring utensils & cups, immersion blender or regular blender (optional)

Ingredients:

1 finely diced large sweet onion; olive oil-- just keep the bottle handy; 2 stalks celery with leaf, diced; 7-10 garlic cloves, sliced; 8-10 shredded baby carrots, about ½ cup; ½ bunch of parsley, finely diced; 1 ½ tsp dry thyme, 3 bay leaves, 2tbsp fresh chopped basil, 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil;, ¼ tsp each of thyme, marjoram, savory, sage and rosemary (all dry); 1 tsp butter; 1 ½ cups chardonnay; 2 tbsp brown susgar; 2 28 oz cans crushed tomatoes; 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes; 1-3 tbsp red wine vinegar; kosher salt

What You Do

Dice your veggies and your herbs. Slice the garlic and shred the carrots. Measure your stuff out and get it prepped, if that’s your bag. Otherwise, make sure you have it at the ready.

Heat about two tablespoons of olive oil on medium high in your large, heavy pot. When it starts to shimmer, add the garlic and sautee until fragrant—about two minutes. Stir frequently.

When you smell the garlic strongly and it starts to get brown on the edges, it's time to add something so it doesn't burn. Nothing worse than burned garlic-- BLEH!

Stir in the butter and the onion. Once the butter is melted, sweat ‘em out until they become a little translucent.

Add the carrots and the celery, stir and sprinkle with kosher salt. Sautee for about 5 minutes, or until the celery begins to soften.

Add the brown sugar and stir until it dissipates and melds all yummy style with the veggies. Sprinkle with kosher salt.

Add the wine and cook down until it reduces by half at least.

Add a turn of olive oil to the pan and stir.

Add the tomatoes, the bay leaf, 2/3 of the fresh herbs, and all of dried herbs.

Add the chicken stock and stir.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for three hours.

Add ½ cup chardonnay, stir, and sprinkle salt. Let simmer for another ½ hour.

As I mentioned, I’ve got a pretty picky anti-tomato eater in my house, but if you’re into chunky spaghetti sauce, you can skip ahead to the red wine vinegar. Otherwise, it’s time to make those tomato chunks disappear, so fish out the bay leaves.

Break out your immersion (stick) blender and puree. If you’re using a regular blender, you’ll probably need to puree in batches. You could probably also use a food processor.

Depending on your taste, add 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar, stirring and letting simmer for 5 minutes between tbsps, until desired acidity is reached. Add remaining fresh herbs and salt to taste.

At this point, it's meat time. I use ground turkey and season it with kosher salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, dried minced onion, thyme, savory and oregano (all dried). I usually lightly mix the herbs with the meat and let it hang out together for awhile before adding it to a heavy bottomed pan with some nice hot olive oil.

Brown the meat. Yum.

Then I ladle the sauce into the pan, which helps deglaze all the brown bits, until the meat is coated and there's a bit extra.

I take a page from Lidia and add another couple ladles of pasta water and a turn of olive oil before adding the noodles.

Dish it out into a bowl, add some parmesan and sprinkle with fresh herbs if you'd like. Then stuff it in your mouth, talk with your hands, and sip the rest of that chardonnay.