When I lived in the Middle East I used fresh everything. I bought fresh tomatoes, blanched them, peeled and blended them for my marinara sauce. I didn’t use any mixes or cans. Moving back to the United States, starting off as a newspaper carrier at 2 a.m., a cook for a sorority type house of college girls and cleaning a local building, well I started using some short cuts. So, here is my Marinara sauce recipe revised.

Ingredients

2 Cans crushed tomatoes

1 small can tomato paste

1 large can tomato sauce

1 tsp. dry basil

2 packages spaghetti sauce mix

1 cup water

1 Tbs. sugar

2 Tbs. dry Parmesan

Directions

Open all cans and put into a crock pot, or a pan on the stove. I put all my ingredients (except sugar and Parmesan cheese) into my crock pot and stir. I let it cook and simmer for hours. If it’s in a pan on the stove it will cook less time and needs to be watched so it doesn’t burn.

In the end of cooking (last 30 minutes) I whisk in sugar and Parmesan cheese.