Garden Fresh Marinara Sauce

Our garden is bursting with tomatoes, but you can only make salsa so many times... Tonight we made a 30-minute marinara sauce that we put over semolina pasta. It turned out fantastic!

The recipe was made up on the fly- and with the distractions of a 6 month old and 3 year old. So I hope my transcription of the recipe is correct enough; here we go:

Recipe: (serves 4)
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 small white onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 cup of Crimini mushrooms, sliced
1/2 medium red bell pepper, diced
9 medium tomatoes diced and seeded (I used 4 Roma tomatoes and 5 early girls)
3 oz of organic tomato paste
1/4 cup of water
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1. Heat a large wide sauce pan on med-high. Add olive oil, onion, garlic, mushrooms and bell pepper. Sauté for 5 minutes.

2. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, water, vinegar, salt and pepper to taste, Italian seasoning, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Cook until tomatoes break down (~10 minutes) then cover and simmer on low for 10-15 minutes. Stir occasionally. Serve hot over pasta with some Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!
- J (Dad)