Eric's Basic Marinara

2 Carrots

1 Medium Onion

1/4-1/3 cup Olive Oil

2 t Dried Oregano

2 T Dried Basil

Red Pepper Flake to taste

2 t Salt

3/4 t Pepper

1 6 oz can Tomato Paste

4 cloves or 2t chopped Garlic

1/3 cup Red wine Times 3

4 28 oz cans Crushed Tomatoes

I have fed this sauce to hundreds of people and never had anyone even guessed there were carrots in it. Many people add sugar to their sauce. I find I can pick out the sugary sweetness. The carrots have a natural sweetness and balance any possible tomato bitterness.

I use Italian plum tomatoes and crush them myself with a stick blender, but pre crushed canned tomatoes work fine.

I cut the onion and carrot and food process to a paste. If you don't have a processor. Use a can or two of Baby (yes baby food) pureed carrots, I've used them when I want to make sauce and I'm not in my home kitchen it works great. If you're using the pureed carrots dice the onion as fine as you can.

In your pot put your olive oil, carrots, and onion, and cook on medium. The strong onion scent will come out, this is sweating the onions and carrots 5-10 minutes, you don't want them to pick up any color. To this I add my basil, oregano, red pepper flake, salt, pepper, and tomato paste. I cook the mixture on medium adding the first of the 1/3 cups of wine, and garlic, in about 10 minutes the paste will darken slightly. add another 1/3 c red wins and tomatoes.

Cover and simmer as low as your stove will go. 40 minutes minimum. Stir often every 5-10 min. Sometimes I get everything prepared and put in a slow cooker to arrive to the house smelling like marinara. Excellent.

15 minutes before serving taste to adjust the seasoning. If you have fresh basil it is a great time to cut some up add a little more wine if you like, I like, and adjust the salt.

There are a ton of variations on this.

I like to puree some roasted red peppers and mix in.

Pesto mixes in nicely.

Add some browned Italian sausage for lasagna. etc