Farmers Market Rainbow Marinara

This marinara was completely thought up on an inspired whim. The inspiration was from a friend of mine, a Southerner trying to find parts of NYC to love, who loves getting heirloom tomatoes and just eating them with olive oil and salt. After trying some of them and acknowledging their varied tastes, acidities, and textures, I was inspired to see how these fresh ‘matoes would do in a marinara. So I went to the Union Sq Farmers market and picked up a group of tomatoes and bell peppers that were as varied as I could find. I went with a lot of variety so that I could taste each tomato and bell pepper before adding it to get a feeling for how the various heirloom tomatoes and crazy colored bell peppers taste. I went with the philosophy of having the sweet bell peppers compliment the (at least I feel) higher acidity of heirloom tomatoes. I also included red onion in the mixture as once had a chicken parmigiana soup that was made great by the addition of red onion, which adds a small kick to the flavor. Note, that the way that I made this marinara required a food processor. See the Comments section for making the sauce without one.


Farmers Market Rainbow Marinara
Servings: ~ 6 cups of sauce
Prep Time: 15min
Cooking Time: 35min or more (see Comments section)

Ingredients: (see the farmers market products picture for an idea of how certain quantities)
• A bunch of heirloom tomatoes of your choice
• A few sweet bell peppers
• Some red onion
• 5 cloves of garlic coarsely chopped
• ¼ cup of olive oil
• 15oz can of tomato sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp dried basil
• 3 basil leaves

Directions:
Clean all ingredients that need cleaning (the tomatoes, peppers, onion). Coarsely cut up the tomatoes, bell peppers, and red onion making sure to throw out the stem areas of the tomatoes and bell peppers, the seed of the bell peppers, and the skin of the onion. Put the tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, and garlic into the food processor and… process them until they are of a chunky paste/sauce consistency similar to crushed tomatoes. Add the paste/sauce to a large sauce pan and add the olive oil, canned tomato sauce, basil, and bay leaves. Stir the sauce, taste it, and then add salt and pepper to your liking. Bring the sauce to a boil, then lower the flame and simmer the sauce for half an hour while stirring occasionally. After half an hour turn the stove off and remove the bay leaves.


Comments
At the end of the recipe provided you can enjoy the sauce then OR ideally let it sit for another 30-60 minutes OR refrigerate for future enjoyment. If you do not have a food processor, you can cut the tomatoes, bell peppers, onion, and garlic to more of a diced size and then add them to the sauce pan; you may also need to add some crushed tomatoes (no more than 15oz) to fill out the sauce. Also, note that getting a different sampling of tomatoes should change the taste of the sauce. I liked this sauce best on top of a fresh tasting ravioli and for dipping grilled cheese sandwiches into (which I HIGHLY recommend).


Enjoy!


Picture 1: Farmers market goods.


Picture 2: Sauce in the pan.


Picture 3: Final product.