Renata's Smashing Marinara (No chopping required!)

Renata's Smashing Marinara Sauce

No chopping, no mincing, no dicing

Some of my best recipes come from being frenzied, lazy, or in a hurry.  This recipe is smashing, I promise!

INGREDIENTS: 

• *One 28 ounce can Italian peeled plum tomatoes, blitzed very briefly in blender, with 1/4 can water, just to make it smooth (*I love Carmelina San Marzano Tomatoes in the yellow can)
• 4-5 T extra virgin olive oil (I call these 4-5 'glugs')
• 4-5 big, fat, juicy cloves garlic that you smash with the side of your biggest knife so it comes apart and is kinda squished apart, maybe it even falls apart a little...get your body weight on it and SMASH your day's stress on them!
• salt and pepper to taste (1 tsp salt for me, but  that may be too salty for you. Start with a little and taste at end to add more if you like)

COOK: 

In a large pan, throw your lovely smashed garlic cloves onto a beautiful pool of olive oil and turn your heat on to medium heat.  

When the garlic begins to smell gorgeous but not before it turns brown, add your blended tomatoes/water mixture, salt and pepper and stir to combine.  

Cook for 30 minutes on medium/medium-high heat until sauce is thick and luscious. That's it! This is one sweet sauce.  By not chopping the garlic, you get all the natural sugar and no bitterness from all the surface area being exposed. 

You will love this sweet, smashing, sensational sauce! Renata's go-to original. 

NOTES:  Remove garlic cloves afterward if you wish and discard.  Or mix them into the pasta and let people decide whether or not to pop them in their mouths!

*Open your can of tomatoes and carefully pour the whole kaboodle in the blender.  Pour away from you so you don't splatter your pretty shirt! (Oh yeah, or wear an apron, oops.) If you use Carmelina tomatoes they are quite thick, so add 1/4 can of water and swirl it around to get all that liquid gold off the sides of the can.  The extra water will give your beautiful tomatoes a chance to cook a little longer before they reduce all the natural sweet sugars out and won't become thick so soon.  

*I also like Muir Glen Organic tomatoes. ALWAYS get peeled whole tomatoes! Think about it. Chopped stuff has already had the surface area exposed. (Hey--is this a recipe or a geometry problem?) Demand only the whole story! Then blitz those babies yourself.  Mmmmm.