Spicy Marinara Sauce

A few Christmas's ago, Jake gave me some cookbooks. Honestly, I didn't know whether I should be offended (WTH Jake, am I a bad cook?) or super pumped (um, helloooo CLEARLY I love to cook). He assured me he got them for me because I love to cook. I decided to believe him. 

One of the recipe books he bought me was from good old Betty Crocker, entitled "Easy Italian." Because I love love LOVE all things spicy, I knew I wanted to try the recipe "Penne with Spicy Sauce." So that was one of my first endeavors. Here's my version of this delicious marinara sauce. 

Ingredients:

• 1 can (28 oz.) diced or plum (Roma) tomatoes with garlic, oregano, and basil, undrained
• olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 Tbs fresh chopped parsley
• 1 Tbs tomato paste
• 1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

How to:

• Place tomatoes with juice in a food processor or blender and process until coarsely chopped. Set aside.
• In a 12-inch skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook garlic, red pepper, and parsley in oil about 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until garlic begins to turn golden.
• Stir in tomatoes and tomato paste. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat. Cover and simmer about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened.
• Add cheese and stir to mix. Cook an additional 3 minutes.

This recipe makes enough sauce for 1 package (16 oz) of pasta. In fact, the original recipe recommends cooking the box of pasta and then tossing it all together with the sauce until the pasta is evenly coated. When I don't make a double (or triple...) batch of this sauce, this is normally what I do. 

The original recipe calls for an entire tsp of crushed red pepper. Honestly, a little bit goes a long way, so I highly recommend only using 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper. I used a full 1 tsp of red pepper the first time I made this, and the sauce was almost impossible to eat. And that's saying a lot, because I seriously love me some spicy foodstuffs. Trust me, this sauce packs a lot of heat.

If you find this recipe is just a little too spicy for you, try mixing some goat cheese in with your sauce (see picture above - I love to top my pasta and Spicy Marinara Sauce with goat cheese!). Fun science fact for you: the casein protein in cheese (and all dairy, for that matter) interacts with the molecule that makes food spicy - capsaicin - and effectively 'washes it away.' Yep, I'm a nerd. 

Enjoy!