Seattle Foodie: Fueling for Our Long Run

I'm always on the lookout for a good marinara sauce and since we really like spaghetti for our pre-long run dinner it gives me the excuse to try out new recipes. I found tonight's recipe on Smitten Kitchen and the recipe has apparently made its way around the blogosphere. When I first read through the recipe, I couldn't but help and agree with some of the comments on the blog. I was skeptical.

How can just these three ingredients make such a great tasting sauce?

Tomato Sauce with Butter and Onions (from Smitten Kitchen)
Adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking

Serves 4 as a main course; makes enough sauce to lightly coat most of a pound of spaghetti

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan (it fit just right in a 3-quart) over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste (you might find, as I did, that your tomatoes came salted and that you didn’t need to add more) and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

Serve with spaghetti, with or without grated parmesan cheese to pass.

I followed the recipe and the only change I made was adding lean ground beef and hot Italian sausage because Brian and I were in the mood for spaghetti with meat sauce.

Meat!

The sauce was delicious and rich. The butter was a great addition to the sauce. It would have definitely been fine on its own. It is so simple and really easy to prepare.