Best marinara

This sauce is best with *crushed* San Marzano (http://www.thenibble.com/REVIEWS/main/vegetables/san-marzano-tomatoes.asp) tomatoes. These crushed tomatoes come with a rich juice in the can that makes this sauce. They are often expensive, but supermarkets sometimes have them on sale at which point I stock up. Other canned tomatoes (like Muir Glen or whatever) are fine, but just not as good. You may need to add a teaspoon of sugar if you do not use Marzanos. Also, the sauce is based on a modified soffrito, which means don’t be shy about cooking those initial veggies down until they almost disintegrate. The porcinis are entirely optional, but they add a nice meaty (umami) richness without dominating the sauce. To save money, you can buy domestic dried porcini (or boletus/bolete) at farmer’s markets, or pick your own and dry them. I used “Oregon porcinis.”Finally, I used the unconventional X + X formula for some ingredients here that will be added at different times in the process to make the recipe easier to follow.

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium carrot, grated
1 large stalk of celery, diced
1 medium onion (brown/white/sweet), diced
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 larges cloves garlic, minced - divided.
¼ cup chopped fresh basil + ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
¼ cup + ¼ cup red wine (Not too oaky. Taste what you use first to make sure. Big oak will ruin the sauce. An Italian Chianti or Montepluciano is fine. I used a fruity cab sauv.)
½ teaspoon dried oregano (1 teaspoon if fresh)
½ teaspoon + ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 28oz cans crushed San Marzano tomatoes
1 or 2 bay leaves
¼ cup dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in ¼ cup boiling water until soft, 20 minutes minimum, then chopped, water strained through cheesecloth and reserved (optional)
salt and pepper to taste

In a large stockpot or dutch oven, heat olive oil at medium. Add carrot, celery, onion half of the garlic, and salt. Stir well. Sauté these veggies on (lowish) medium until soft, 5-10 minutes, stirring regularly. Lower heat to medium low and continue sautéing for 10 minutes. (The idea here is to make a soffrito, which involves cooking the veggies until they almost breakdown in an ample amount of oil. This may take 20 minutes or much longer.) Add mushrooms, and ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes. Continue sautéing at medium low, stirring regularly, for 10 more minutes or until the soffrito is really soft and mushy. The garlic should not burn at this temperature and with all the other veggies in the pot. It also won’t be as soft as the other veggies, but this is ok. Some stuff sticking to the bottom of the pot is not a problem, but lower heat if there is any burning. Add ¼ cup wine and the reserved porcini water. Scrape up anything that’s attached to the bottom of the pot. Raise heat to medium-high and allow the liquid simmer and reduce for 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, ¼ cup basil, ½ teaspoon red pepper flakes, oregano, the remaining garlic, bay leaves, and ¼ cup wine. Stir well. You may want to thin the sauce at this point. If so, run roughly ¼ cup tap water into one of the tomato cans and add that (continue as necessary). Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, stirring occasionally, paying special attention to scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking and burning, for 25 minutes. Next, taste for salt and pepper and season accordingly. Add the last ¼ cup of fresh basil and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove from heat, remove bay leaves, puree with immersion blender if desired. Let cool for a few minutes and use or freeze as desired!