Marinara Sauce for the Mussels

Here is the recipe for the Marinara Sauce for the Mussels. I cut it in half in the recipe you are seeing below, but the recipe I am giving you is the full recipe that will serve 12.

FEINER'S FAVORITE MARINARA SAUCE FOR MUSSELS
Rosemarie DiPierdomenico


2 (1 pound 12 ounce) cans Chunky Crushed tomatoes (Furmano's®)
2 (2 pounds 3 ounce) cans Italian plum tomatoes
4 cans regular crushed tomatoes
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
Salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons dried basil
2 cups (about ½ bottle) of Inglenook® Chablis or any white wine
Olive oil (about ¼ cup)


Open all the cans of tomatoes and place the 2 cans of plum tomatoes in the blender (one at a time) and turn quickly on and off just to liquefy. In a very large pot, cover the bottom with olive oil. Heat, and then add the garlic and onions. You may need to add a little more olive oil at this point. Sauté for a few minutes until lightly browned. Add the pureed plum tomatoes and the rest of the crushed tomatoes, salt, pepper, basil, and the wine. (I usually add about half of the bottle). Cook about 45 minutes to an hour. I usually make this a few days in advance. Set aside enough sauce to fix the 3 pounds of spaghetti. Use to fix the spaghetti as per the directions in the mussel recipe. Set aside extra sauce for the gravy boat. Add the mussels to remaining sauce as directed in the mussels marinara recipe, being sure to drain about ½ to ¾ of the liquid from mussels or the sauce will be too watery (you do want to retain a little of the liquid for the garlic and wine flavor). Serves 12.

Here are the ingredients for the Marinara sauce:



Again, the key here is to have everything ready to go so you don't waste time

Peel and press your garlic and set it aside




Peel and chop your onion and set it aside (it doesn't have to be too fine)





Open all your tomato cans - you will be mixing three types of tomatoes here to get a good consistency that will allow you to add so much liquid to the sauce (plum tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, and chunky crushed tomatoes.)




Place your plum tomatoes in the blender and just turn it on and off quickly to puree the tomatoes. The rest of the tomatoes will go directly into the pot and will NOT be put in the blender.






Add the oil to your pot (about 1/4 cup)




Before you start to heat the oil, have everything lined up next to the stove because as the onions and garlic begin to cook, you will want to add the tomatoes quickly.




Heat the oil and add the onions, stirring frequently until they are golden brown





Add the garlic and just cook for a few seconds as you don't want the garlic to brown or burn.




Quickly, add the cans of tomatoes to the onions/garlic mix.



Add the dried basil



Salt and Pepper





and finally the wine



Take an empty tomato can and fill it about 1/4 of the way with water,



slosh it around the can cleaning any remaining tomatoes from the inside of the can and pour it into the next empty can, and repeat with all the cans until you have gotten every bit of tomato out of the cans



and add the water to the sauce.



Bring the sauce to a boil, and then lower to a simmer and let simmer about 1 an 1/2 hours. Keep on low if you are going to use it right away. ( You can also make the sauce in advance and just reheat it the day you want to use it.)





Fill your pot for the spaghetti with hot water and add salt to the pot,





bring to a boil





Place some sauce in the bottom of your serving bowl while the spaghetti is cooking.




Drain the spaghetti, and add to the sauce. Add cheese if you want to, but sometimes when serving a sauce with fish, you may want to eliminate the cheese.





In the picture you see below, the cheese is shown because this was the spaghetti that didn't have the fish mixture added to it.



Follow the directions for preparing the mussels that were given in the above demonstration as to mixing the liquid from the mussels with the sauce