In Brazil, no one cooks out of cans. It’s foreign to them. I remember the first time I witnessed homemade marinara sauce cooked on the stove. Created by a Salvadorian Brazilian girl named Heloisa in a flat we shared in Florence, Italy, she stirred it with a wooden spoon, letting it bubble and ooze. She told me I needed to stop my American nonsense of buying bottles of ketchup and squirting it over my spaghetti, like it was a real meal. Sure, it tasted like crap but I wasn’t making much money. What was the big deal?
Unfortunately at that time in my life, cooking was not a priority. Heloisa showed me how to make Brazilian mariana, but today all I remember was that I was hungry, it smelled good and I was eyeing her Coco-Puffs on top of the refrigerator. I kept thinking if I ate them for dinner, I would be expected to buy her a new box the next time I went to the grocery. Ahh, wasted youth.
I'll try the Italian spice.....next time.
I found this recipe on-line at food.com and no, it isn’t Brazilian. It even had me use a couple of cans, but it’s a start. Like my friend Jamie Oliver says, I didn’t open a jar and pour it on, I actually cooked it with real ingredients (minus the few cans) and let it simmer in the crock pot. When Matt came home from work, he said, “What smells so delicious in here?” Doesn’t he know that’s the nicest thing he could ever say to me? Such a romantic, that Matt.
Cooks 6 to 8 hours.
What you’ll need:
1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1 can tomato Puree.
1 (15) oz. can Diced tomatoes with Green Chilies.
1 1/2 cups chopped sweet onions
2 cups sliced mushrooms
3 crushed garlic cloves
3 tablespoons of Chef Paul Prudhomme’s Herbal Pizza and Pasta Magic: A Seasoning Blend (use Italian seasoning if you have it, I just couldn’t get the top off.)
1/2 tablespoon sugar
Meatballs optional, leave out for vegetarian preference
How to Cook it in the Crock Pot:
1. Pour all ingredients in the crock pot.
2. Cook on low 6 to 8 hours.
3. If using meatballs, they can be cooked all day with sauce or added the last 2 hours.
End Result:
Because of the Pizza and Pasta Magic seasoning blend PLUS the green chilies, it came out so spicy, I could hardly eat it. Matt, of course, loved it. As we slurped it up, curling the whole wheat angel hair pasta around our forks, he said, “We should make it with meatballs next time.”
And so we shall.
Other posts about marinara:
Marinara Sauce (lacasitainspirada.wordpress.com)
The Best Marinara Sauce Winner IS… (aleksandreia.wordpress.com)
Chicken Marinara, the Easy Way (lacucinadijenn.wordpress.com)
SHRIMP MARINARA-QUICK (marykeys.wordpress.com)
Chicken in Marinara Sauce (denlyn3.wordpress.com)
It’sa marinara! (southerncomforteats.com)
Shrimp Marinara (thecrockpotblog.com)
Jennifer
G.I. Crockpot 
[…] Low-fat Marinara sauce in the crock pot […]
So you lived in Italy! When was that? What did you do there? You’ve lived all over the place.
That was back when I graduated from high school and I wasn’t interested in studying. I wanted to SEE. So I took off on my own for a year and a half travleling Europe and the Middle East. I worked everywhere I went. In Italy I sold t-shirts and leather bags in the San Lorenzo market in Florence.
Listen to you! You’ve lived everywhere! Where was your favorite place? (And I know that’s a trick question because each place has it’s own personality and wonders, but if you could move back to one place, where would it be?)
[…] Low-fat Marinara sauce in the crock pot […]
[…] Low-fat Marinara sauce in the crock pot […]
[…] Low-fat Marinara sauce in the crock pot […]
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[…] to 12 cabbage leaves 1/4 cup organic sunflower seeds 1 jar marinara (or you can make your own using my recipe, just leave out the mushrooms) 2 tbsp olive oil 3 tbsp organic lemon juice salt pepper feta cheese […]
[…] Sign pesto up beside peanut butter, tortillas, Greek yogurt, granola, muesli, marinara sauce and nut mixes. I won’t have to worry with containers any longer because I won’t be […]