Spicy Marinara Sauce from The Table

Ingredients

1 small onion or 1/2 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tb chopped fresh thyme or 1/2 Tb dried thyme
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper (use just a pinch or none at all if you don’t want spicy)
3 cups chopped tomatoes (about 6 medium tomatoes or 8-9 roma)
1/2 Tb brown sugar
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil (you can sub about 1 Tb dried, but the fresh makes a big difference)
2 Tb chopped fresh oregano or 1 Tb dried
1 Tb chopped fresh rosemary or 1/2 Tb dried
2 Tb olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. The tomatoes should be peeled. To do this easily, boil a pot of water on the stove and set a bowl of ice water nearby. Then cut 2 small x’s in the skin of each tomato, one on the top and one on the bottom. Drop the tomatoes, a couple at a time into the boiling water. Wait about 30 seconds (you’ll see the skin start to peel away where you cut the x’s), the use a slotted spoon to scoop up the tomato and place in the the bowl of ice. Repeat with all the tomatoes.
2. Drain the ice water and peel the tomatoes. The skin should slip right off. Then core and roughly chop each one. Big chunks is fine, they will break down when cooking. Set them aside.
3. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over medium high heat (medium for normal recipe, a bigger pot if doubling). Saute the onion till tender and starting to brown, 4-5 minutes. Stir in garlic, thyme, and red pepper. Saute 2 min.
4. Add tomatoes and brown sugar. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring occasionally, for 15 min.
5. Stir in basil, oregano, and rosemary. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cook 5 minutes.
6. Remove from heat and let cool about 15 minutes. At this point it is quite chunky, but can be pureed with an immersion blender or in a food processor until it reaches the desired consistency. I gave mine a whirl in the food processor, but kept it on the chunkier side since I like it this way.
7. Serve or freeze for later. To freeze, let the sauce cool for a couple hours, then pour in large freezer bags (I froze about 1 1/4 cups per bag for 2 servings). Lay the bags flat in the freezer till frozen and they’ll take up little room.

Source: Spicy Marinara Sauce – The Table