Marinara is a staple in any household you visit. There is almost always a glass jar of the beautiful red sauce on the pantry shelf or opened and half used in the refrigerator. What if I told you making a homemade sauce is almost as easy as pouring it from a jar and you could make exactly the amount you need? This marinara is a fool proof recipe you can make time and time again, but only if it has a drop of Bored-O Rouge.

BLEND USED: Bored-O Rouge California Grape Nectar 

Tasting Attributes: The dark and grapey flavor profile helps tone down the acidity of the tomatoes exquisitely. 

Marinara sauce is something that is often overlooked when it comes to homemade recipes, but many people are still underwhelmed with the jarred sauce they are buying at the store. This marinara sauce will solve that issue for you. Inspired by a typical Italian marinara, this sauce has olive oil, shallots, dried oregano, garlic, basil and red pepper flakes. In addition we added in a few ingredients to make it our own. We squeezed some lemon juice in, a splash of red wine vinegar, sautéed some mushrooms, and added some salt and pepper to taste. The last components that help this recipe stand out are using whole and peeled tomatoes, so you can hand crush them and, of course, Bored-O Rouge Grape Nectar. 

You may be wondering why on earth a natural sweetener would go into this recipe. Believe it or not, many, if not all marinara sauces have some sort of sweetener in them. Whether it be a dash of granulated cane sugar or much to our chagrin, corn syrup, they are often used to tame the acidity of the tomatoes. You read that right, corn syrup is often hidden in the label for a tomato paste or sauce. By making your own sauce at home you can bypass that risk of corn syrup laced sauce. 

The Bored-O Rouge Grape Nectar in this sauce does a beautiful job of toning down the acidity of the plump tomatoes, while adding a little of its own flavor. Don't worry the grape nectar doesn't turn the marinara into a sweet sauce, rather keeps the savory profile while adding a bold undertone that compliments the existing flavors incredibly well. In addition, the grape nectar is a natural sweetener that is low carb, low glycemic, and going to treat your body much more kindly than an typical sugar or corn syrup. 

Once you have your marinara, what should you put it on? Marinara is an incredibly versatile sauce that keeps well in the refrigerator. In this recipe, we put the marinara over zucchini noodles making it an ultra clean and healthy recipe. For the finishing touch, we sprinkled on some vegan parmesan cheese. Try it out! We promise it won't disappoint!

 

Ingredients

• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 diced shallots
• 1 28oz can of whole and peeled tomatoes
• 1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
• 1 tbsp of Bored-O Rouge Grape Nectar
• 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar
• sprinkle of red pepper flakes 
• sprinkle of oregano
• fresh basil leaves
• Kelly Crouton Lemon Pepper Parm

 

Preparation

1. Heat some oil in a large sauce pan and cook the garlic, mushroom, and shallot over medium-high heat until golden brown. 
2. Hand crush the whole tomatoes then add them in. Add in the Bored-O Rouge Grape Nectar, the red pepper flakes, lemon juice, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and oregano. Stir and cook over medium-high heat covered for 10 minutes. Then simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes. The longer it simmers the better the flavor.
3. Add in the spiraled zucchini into the sauce pan and let simmer with the sauce until they are the texture you like. You can also boil them prior to adding to the sauce.
4. Add the fresh basil leaves, stir and cook uncovered for another 5 minutes.
5. Pull off the stove and serve with a sprinkle of Kelly Crouton's Lemon Pepper Vegan Parmesan.

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