Roasted Marinara

I can't believe I forgot to post this earlier today. I had a lot of homework, and had kind of a rough day today. The up-side of my day is that I had a professor ask me today if I was graduating this May (I wish!), because he needs one of his students who is also an honours student to have dinner with him and the president (and whomever else I didn't hear about) of the school and he was going to ask me to go if I was graduating (for whatever reason, said honours student has to be graduating next month). But uh... yeah. Rough day.

Anyway, this is my favourite of all the marinaras I make. It is simple, it has a wider nutritional profile because you're getting lots of coloured veggies and such, it takes almost no work to make, and it is really, really delicious. Roasting the veggies brings out a nice sweetness to contrast the unroasted garlic and such. You should make it. I don't normally chatter on about a recipe, but it's bed-time, so that's what you get. I love this sauce as much as I love that wheat salad.

1 yellow onion, sliced
1 large yellow squash, cut into sticks
1 medium tomato, sliced
.25 pound carrot, cut into sticks
4 stalks celery, cut into sticks
1 teaspoon each: salt and pepper
1 T balsamic vinegar
2-3 T olive oil
1 large red bell pepper (when these are out of season, I buy the cheaper green ones instead)
5 cloves garlic
15 oz can tomato sauce

Take vegetables of first group and lay on a foil lined sheet pan. Sprinkle S&P, then drizzle w/ oil and vinegar. Roast for 15 minutes on 350 degrees.

On stovetop, roast bell pepper*, then chop. Add roasted veggies and garlic to a food processor or blender. Pulse until grainy. Add tomato sauce and blend. Transfer sauce to medium saucepan, heat on low heat until sauce boils and thickens slightly.

*To do this, if you're not sure what I'm talking about, turn on burner, allow to heat up (or if you're blessed with a gas stove, I'm jealous of you, but just turn on the flame). Lay bell pepper on the burner, and turn it periodically [whenever that part of the skin is charred]. When it's blackened, turn off burner and put the pepper in a bowl. Cover the bowl w/ lid, towel, t-shirt, whatever is handy and clean. Let the pepper sit 5-10 minutes, then take out of the bowl. Wash off the charred skin, and pull out insides of pepper. Yay, roasted pepper that is so much faster than doing it in the oven I can't even express it.

Ok, good night!!

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