Thursday, January 31, 2013

Recipe Corner: AHA Spaghetti with Zesty Marinara Sauce

This recipe is a little sweet but pretty good, and since it serves eight I was able to freeze half for another week when I'm feeling less inclined to cook. All that is good in my book.

Ingredients
1 tsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 6-oz can no-salt-added tomato paste
2 tbls minced fresh parsley
2 tsp sugar*
1 1/4 tsp dried Italian seasonings, crumbled
1/2 tsp dried basil, crumbled
1/4 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/8 tsp salt
1 14.5-oz can no-salt-added tomatoes, crushed, undrained
1/2 cup water
1 8-oz can no-salt-added tomato sauce
1/4 dry red wine
1 medium dried bay leaf
16 oz dried whole-grain spaghetti
1/2 cup shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

Directions
In a medium saucepan, heat the oil over medium-high heat, swirling to coat the bottom. Cook the onion and garlic for 3 minutes, or until the onion is soft, stirring occasionally.

Whisk in the tomato paste, parsley, sugar, Italian seasoning, basil, pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt. Reduce the heat to medium low. Cook for 4 minutes, stirring frequently.

Stir in the remaining sauce ingredients. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour to 1 hour 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard the bay leaf.

Meanwhile, prepare the spaghetti using the package directions, omitting the salt. Drain well in a colander. Transfer to a large serving bowl.

Stir in the Parmesan. Top with the sauce.

Serves 8.

*As pointed out by Amber I left a dangling asterisk (Dear God, no!). I put it there to note that in future batches I will use less sugar.

2 comments:

Amber said...

This is very similar to the sauce that I make but I've never noticed no-salt-added tomato options before. Are they easy to find in stores? And what's the asterisk by the sugar? I'm guessing too much? Was it white sugar? I always use brown and like the way it makes it taste, but I prefer my sauce sweet.

Oh, and who on earth has 1.5 hours to let their sauce summer?! Sheesh.

Christie said...

The AHA folks are all about no-salt-added canned goods. Sodium levels on canned goods are crazy high most of the time. New Seasons has a good selection of organic, no-salt-added things. I was at Thriftway today and found what I needed but they had less organic options. I feel for people who don't live in an area like ours with so much access to good foods.