This great marinara sauce recipe is from "Rao's Cookbook," by Frank Pellegrino. It's delicious atop penne, angel hair, and even eggplant parmesan.

Rao's Marinara Sauce

whole tomatoes

olive oil

onion

garlic,

salt and pepper

basil, torn (optional)

oregano

Remove tomatoes from can and place in a large bowl, reserving juices. Crush tomatoes using your hands; remove and discard the hard core from stem end, and any skin and tough membrane; set aside.

Place oil in a large, nonreactive saucepan over medium-low heat. Add onion, and cook until soft and just beginning to brown, about 3 minutes. Stir in garlic, and cook until softened, about 30 seconds. Stir in tomatoes and reserved juices; season with salt. Increase heat and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to low and simmer until slightly thickened, about 1 hour.

Stir in basil, if using, oregano, and season with pepper; continue cooking 1 minute more. Remove from heat and serve.

I enjoyed this recipe, but Docoted it quite a bit. Way too much olive oil, I ended up skimming a ton from the top of the sauce. I also added a splash of red wine, some Penzeys Italian seasoning, and a pinch of sugar. Cooked for 3 hours and then smoothed out with an emersian mixer. In the end I guess I used this recipe as a base, and will use it again.

WOW. So bland. Disappointing. DEFINITELY NOT like the Rao's marinara you can buy in the store.

my secret ingredient .... Martini and Rossi sweet vermouth ... depending on the quantity of canned San Marzano tomatoes... i would add about a cup, minimum, to 3 cans.... It adds a pungency to the sauce... a depth of flavor that is really, really excellent!  i always get rave reviews ...

I use the giant San Marzano tomatoes from Costco, it's called Nina and it's like $4. The most important step in making this sauce is hand squeezing the peeled tomatoes, making sure to remove the hard middle core and throwing that away. 
Usually I use sweet onion and grate it instead of chopping so it melts into the sauce. This can has basil ibut you can always add more at the end. 
My sauce comes out just like the jar but for pennies and I freeze it in portions and use it for weeks. Yum!

I made this and initially it was way too bland!  I had though only 4 cloves garlic was too little for that many tomatoes.  I ended up adding more spices - granulated garlic, red pepper flakes- and let it simmer for another couple hours and it got better.

So fresh tasting! Next time I'm going to add a few more spices and more of them. Needed some more salt or garlic perhaps.

I made Rao's Arrabbiata Sauce last night, and it was awesome!  Just as tasty as the jar.  Its the same recipe as the Marinara just add pepper flakes for the spice. However I did need to cook it longer then an hour to get the flavors to come together.  Adding the fresh basil at the end completed the taste.  I am sure I will routinely buy Rao's at the store for the expensive price of $10 a jar, but its nice to know I can make it a home much cheaper if I want to invest the time.

Grrr, just add a pinch of sugar to the sauce. It will make it less acidic, but not really sweet.

I made this sauce and used a 'nonreactive' pan and it still tastes a bit acidic.  How do I make it less acidic?

Martha and Michael Kors make one of his favorite recipes from Rao's restaurant: meatballs with marinara sauce. Part 1. 

rao's marinara sauce

Servings: 7

Cost: $3.11 /serving

Author : Martha Stewart

Ingredients

Instructions

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