Sunday, October 12, 2008

Simple Marinara


With a half marathon in the morning, I needed my usual pre-race dinner: spaghetti. I've been eating spaghetti the night before a race (from 5K to Half-Ironman) for over 10 years, and I see no reason to change it up now. I know it won't upset my stomach, I know it will give me some carbs to fuel my muscles during the race, and just having that routine gets me into race mode easily. I'm not a front-of the pack runner or anything, but I always try and get a PR, so the more I can do to set myself up for that, the better.

My usual protocol for making pasta sauce includes dumping a 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes and random odds and ends into a sauce pan, heating it for about 10 minutes, then pouring it over pasta. It always turned out good enough - why bother with a recipe? However, when I saw That Girl's recipe I decided to give it a go. I just made a few changes - using fresh basil because I happened to have some on hand, adding about 1/2 tsp of sugar to balance the acidity of the tomatoes, and tripling the garlic because we can't get enough around here. It was really good, and definitely got me in the mood to go out and run 13.1 miles!

(adapted from Paved With Good Intentions)
1 small onion, chopped
3 clove garlic, chopped
1 Tbsp canola oil
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
1/2 tsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt

Heat oil in saucepan over medium high heat. Add garlic and onion and cook until onion is lightly browned.
Stir in remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook 30-45 minutes.
Remove cover and cook 15 more minutes.
Serve over spaghetti with a dusting of Parmesan cheese

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