My twist on marinara sauce

First of all I want to thank everyone who stopped by to read the "Back to Basics" segment yesterday, I really enjoyed putting that together.  Well I thought I'd stay on pace with the basics and talk briefly about one of my favorite sauces, marinara.  It seems weird for me to say that this is one of my favorite sauces considering I'm Italian and allergic to tomatoes, that has just got to be a cruel joke God is playing on me. 

What makes my marinara so different is that I roast my tomatoes and my garlic before making the sauce, this helps to naturally sweeten the tomato and balance out the high acidity.  For a large batch I use 7-10 tomatoes depending on size and 1/4 cup of garlic cloves (whole).

The first thing I do is coat my tomatoes and garlic cloves with olive oil, then I cut an X in the bottom of the tomato and place them all on a baking sheet in a 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes.  When you remove the tomatoes from the oven put them on either a cutting board or plate so they can cool enough so you can handle them.  Once they are cool enough to handle you'll notice that the skin near the X that you made is peeling back, use that to fully peel the tomatoes.

Now in a large sauce pot I saute the following:

1 large yellow onion diced medium (3/8")
2 medium zucchini squash diced medium
3/4 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrots
1 cup sliced medium mushrooms (I prefer crimini's)
3 Tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried marjoram
3 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme

Saute all that until the celery and onions are translucent then add 1/2 cup of a nice red wine of your choice. 
Now if you have a stick blender, you can put the tomatoes and garlic directly into the pot, otherwise puree the tomatoes in a blender (not completely smooth, leave some texture).  Once the tomatoes are in the pot if they aren't already pureed do so with the stick blender just remember to leave some texture to the veggies.  If you had to puree the tomatoes first you can pour them in and take small amounts at a time out and puree in the blender.

When all pureeing is done you should have a wonderful looking sauce with some apparent bits of vegetable in it as well as a real nice color from the roasting.  Simmer this for a few hours and enjoy!