AN EASY MARINARA SAUCE, KICKED UP WITH PEPPERONI & ARTICHOKE HEARTS

This easy marinara sauce is going to make you look like a rockstar.  There are just no two ways about it.  The prep time for the recipe is about 5 minutes, the active cooking is only about 10 minutes and then you sit back while all the flavors meld together.  It’s just that easy and the rich, bold sauce screams that you worked all day on it!

Historically, I’ve been the kind of guy who thinks that jarred marinara sauce is fine to use in a pinch.  Sometimes I’ll take two different kinds (my favorite is to use a four cheese and a vodka sauce), mix them together and nobody is the wiser.  Well, wait until you taste this recipe.  The flavor is just exploding in every direction.

Let’s review a couple things before you get started on this recipe:

• Make sure that you sweat the onions long enough so they are just about transparent before adding in the wine.  This will allow them to absorb a lot of the flavor from the wine when it is added.
• When you are adding in the wine, make sure you are stirring!  Wine has a lot of naturally occurring sugars which will burn if you just leave it sit.  Also, make sure that it is cooked off as shown in the picture below.
• Add in the pepperoni and artichoke hearts toward the end of the cooking.  I like the artichoke hearts mostly intact, and they tend to break down too much if you add them in right away.
• Make sure you are using the best pepperoni that you can find.  When we made this at my catering company, we tried different pepperonis and found that the low quality pepperoni tended to throw off a lot of grease.

REMOVING ACIDITY TIP: Sometimes marinara sauces can start to taste acidic.  There are a couple things that you can do to fix this!  If it tastes acidic (not metallic), you can add in a pinch of sweetener.  This means different things for different people.  Sweetener can be stevia, sugar, agave etc.  Add sparingly and taste.  If you get a little too sweet, add in some salt… again sparingly and taste.

If you don’t want to go the sweet route, you can try some baking soda.  Just a bit goes a long way!

If you have a metallic taste, this probably has come from the can which the tomatoes were in.  Most times you can work through this with a little salt.

TYPE OF PAN TO USE: Okay… typically I just say that we are going to use a heavy bottom pan etc.  I would caution against using your cast iron pan when you are working with tomatoes.  The acidic nature of the tomato tends to cause a couple things to happen with cast iron.  First, it can remove the seasoning on the pan.  Sure, it can be fixed but why bother?  Start with enameled cast iron or stainless steel.  Second, it can add a metallic flavor to some tomato dishes.  I’m not exactly sure why, I just know that it has happened to me enough that I stick with stainless or enameled.  I know there are varying opinions on using cast iron, but this is what I have found more often than not!

Okay… enough tips.  Let’s get going on this Easy Marinara Sauce!