I have learned this from my best friend Giuseppe who is straight from Naples, sauté your onions with a 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes and cook until the onions sweat but not burnt, add the garlic and do not burn garlic, add your sauce, (Pastene is my favorite), add salt, pepper, fresh basil, cup of Chianti and bring up the heat to medium, cover the pot so the flavors don’t escape and constantly stir until a med simmer is accomplished, simmer for 20 minutes longer, and uncover on a slow simmer to finish for another 15 minutes and constantly stir the pot , add a half tsp of baking soda, yes baking soda and give it a good stir. remove basil stems and stir and serve, I have been making this excellent sauce for over 30 plus years and people beg me to make it. don’t add sugar to your recipe does nothing to sweeten it. the baking soda removes the acid and makes it sweet. you will never burp up this sauce, guaranteed. ENJOY
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These tomatoes are already fairly sweet on their own. No extra sugar needed! (salt, on the other hand, tho … ) Thanks for the kind words. I hope you enjoy it! 😀

I’ll echo Julie. Most times I’ve seen “marinara” in use, though, is as a dip for seafood (primarily shrimp), but I’ve also seen it in use to refer to a vegetarian pasta sauce. In fact, it was just today that I found out that this kind of sauce is properly referred to as “Neapoletano” or “Napoli” sauce, and that it can incorporate meat in some of its variations.

I was very happy to come across your recipe, as it is one of the few that a) incorporate a lengthy simmering time, which would enable it to thicken properly; and b) did NOT add sugar. In my (not so) humble opinion a really good sauce shouldn’t need added sweetener. I look forward to trying this out 🙂

I grow the San Marzano tomatoes in my garden (the Americanized version since I have no volcanic soil) and they are fantastic (the Mercedes of tomatoes)…their color, taste, small amount of seeds and thin skin are great for sauce.  I make a ton of sauce in the summer to use all winter long. 

Niki ? YAY! <br /><br />

Pam, yep! It would certainly appear that way! My only suggestion would be to take the lessons from the article and bargain hunt with those ideas in mind. There?s bound to be a better deal out there, somewhere. Sorry they raised the prices!