CSA Produce and a Marinara Sauce Recipe

Since Thursday, JunkMale and I have been eating off our CSA produce, and since the share we got last week had a couple of vegetables we were not very familiar with (fennel and eggplant), I turned to the internet to find some recipes. I knew I wanted to make eggplant parmesan, because I've had that before in Italian restaurants and have enjoyed it. I also had a sneaking suspicion that the only way I could get JM to eat eggplant was to batter and fry it, then smother it in tomato sauce and cheese. In other words, make it so you can't tell there's any eggplant in it. Because, ya know, "eggplant looks too much like mushrooms". ;-)

As it turns out, the fennel recipe I found also used tomato sauce. This was the perfect opportunity for me to try to make marinara sauce. Previous attempts had been edible, bordering on tasty, but definitely nothing to write home about. This time, I was going to try an expert's recipe. The recipe at the bottom of the post is adapted from Giada de Laurentis' cookbook, Everyday Italian. This time, it worked. JunkMale must have commented a dozen times over the last few days about how good the marinara sauce is. I have been encouraged to double the recipe and freeze for later use.

So, joy of joys, the CSA has been thus far a resounding success. We have eaten foods we would probably never have bought on our own, and we are certainly going to be having a more vegetable-heavy diet than before (although I in no way intend to give up meat). We have enjoyed all of the meals, and all of the new recipes I tried this week I would definitely try again. What's more, it seems that this week's half share is just enough for a week's worth of meals. I certainly do not expect every week to go this smoothly, but so far this has been a very encouraging start to our 3-month CSA trial.

Marinara Sauce

1/2 cup olive oil
2 small onions, chopped fine
2 carrots, chopped fine
2 stalks celery, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 28-oz cans crushed tomatoes
2 bay leaves

Heat oil over medium high heat in a dutch oven. Add the vegetables and cook until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Add all the rest of the ingredients and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for 1 hour. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to a week, or in the freezer for 3 months.