Finally! An Excellent Raw Marinara Sauce!

For several weeks I’ve been scouring the internet looking for recipes to use in my upcoming class, “Vegetables Even Your Husband Will Eat.” I knew one of the dishes I wanted to show people was raw zucchini spaghetti noodles, so I wanted a good sauce to use on them. I’ve tried several raw recipes and just found them too much like fresh tomato juice – yummy to be sure, but not marinara sauce.

I went to Amazon to see if I could find some raw cookbooks (or should that be UNcookbook?) and found Amber Shea Crawley’s Practically Raw: Flexible Raw Recipes Anyone Can Make. It had really good reviews so I decided to order it. And I’m so glad I did!!

On page 136 I found her “Spaghetti alla Marinara.” OH MY GOSH!! The sundried tomatoes were the missing link! They add such a wonderful depth of flavor to the sauce. All the other sauces I’ve tried were just too thin tasting. I had my 7 year old granddaughter help me make the sauce and she asked for seconds! Quite a compliment from such a finicky, picky, selective eater!

Being the tweaker that I am, I couldn’t just make the recipe as published. OH NO! That would be too easy! So here’s my version of Spaghetti Alla Marinara:

Marla’s Version of Spaghetti Alla Marinara

FOR THE SAUCE:

1 cup sundried tomatoes, soaked for 30 minutes and water reserved
1 large or 2 small pitted dates soaked with the sundried tomatoes (I used one large medjool date)
2 medium ripe tomatoes, cored, seeded and chopped
(I had a package of cherry tomatoes that needed to be used up so I used them instead. I just sliced them in half and added to the blender)
1 small clove garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast (I only used 1T because I’m not a big fan)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 to 3/4 cup soaking water, as needed

FOR THE SPAGHETTI NOODLES:

4 medium zucchini, peeled, spiralized

DIRECTIONS:

Soak the sundried tomatoes and date(s) in enough water to cover them. Set aside while you prepare your zucchini. Cold water is fine, but warm water will soften them faster. Soaking not only softens the tomatoes and dates so they blend easier (and don’t burnout your food processor/blender), but it creates a wonderfully flavorful liquid that enhances the sauce.

Sometimes zucchini peels can be bitter so I recommend peeling them if serving to children (or husbands!). Spiralize your zucchini to make spaghetti noodles.

If you don’t have a spiral slicer you can use a standard vegetable peeler to make fettuccine noodles. Just peel the zucchini like you normally would. After you remove all the green skin, just keep going. Turn the zucchini frequently to keep the noodles from getting too wide. Stop when you get to the seeds in the center. That part doesn’t make very good noodles. Snack on that part as you prepare dinner or use it to sample your sauce as you make it!

Optional:Sprinkle the noodles with a generous pinch or two of salt and toss to coat. This will draw some of the moisture out of the noodles and make them more “al dente” and a little less zucchini-ish. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes or more then drain off the water before serving. If you like, you can rinse them to remove the salt then dry them in a salad spinner. I just adjust the amount of salt in the sauce.

Combine all sauce ingredients including the 1/2 cup soaking water in a high-speed blender and blend to combine. Add more water, 2 tablespoons at a time, as needed to help blend smoothly. The sauce should be thick.

After  blending the sauce on the Whole Foods setting of my blendtec blender to make it smooth, I blended again using the Soup setting to gently heat the sauce.

In a large bowl, toss the zucchini noodles with the marinara sauce. Serve immediately.

If you won’t be eating all the spaghetti at once, refrigerate the noodles and sauce separately. If you mix them together the zucchini will release its juice and thin the sauce.

I found the sauce to be a little too salty. I don’t know if I accidentally used 1/2 TABLESPOON of salt instead of 1/2 teaspoon (not that *I’d* ever do anything like that!) or if it just needs adjusting. To salvage the sauce I added a little turbinado sugar (a minimally processed sugar) since sweet balances salty. Worked perfectly!  Next time I’ll start with 1/4 teaspoon salt and add from there.

If you have all your ingredients at room temperature when you start, blending will warm the sauce, especially if you have a high speed blender. Use the Soup setting on a Blendtec, or blend for 90 seconds to two minutes. My zucchini were fresh out of the refrigerator so even though I warmed my sauce on the Soup setting, the noodles quickly cooled it. I wanted my spaghetti warmer, but didn’t want to cook it. I wanted to preserve all the raw goodness, like enzymes, that can be destroyed by heat. So I put both the noodles and the sauce in the oven. I warmed the oven to just over 100 degrees then turned it off. I left the noodles and sauce in there for 20-30 minutes to warm up. You could do this in a dehydrator if you have one. You can also do this to warm up left overs. Just warm the noodles and sauce separately because the noodles will release juice as they warm. Be careful not to heat them too much or they’ll get soggy.

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Finally! An Excellent Raw Marinara Sauce!

The sundried tomatoes add such a great depth of flavor to this sauce

Course: Dinner

Cuisine: Raw

Author: Marla Evans @ ReclaimedHealth.com

Ingredients

• FOR THE SAUCE:
• 1 cup sundried tomatoes soaked for 30 minutes and water reserved
• 1 large or 2 small pitted dates soaked with the sundried tomatoes I used one large medjool date
• 2 medium ripe tomatoes cored, seeded and chopped
• I had a package of cherry tomatoes that needed to be used up so I used them instead. I just sliced them in half and added to the blender
• 1 small clove garlic peeled
• 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast I only used 1T because I'm not a big fan
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup soaking water as needed
• FOR THE SPAGHETTI NOODLES:
• 4 medium zucchini peeled, spiralized

Instructions

1. Soak the sundried tomatoes and date(s) in enough water to cover them. Set aside while you prepare your zucchini. Cold water is fine, but warm water will soften them faster. Soaking not only softens the tomatoes and dates so they blend easier (and don't burnout your food processor/blender), but it creates a wonderfully flavorful liquid that enhances the sauce.
2. Sometimes zucchini peels can be bitter so I recommend peeling them if serving to children (or husbands!). Spiralize your zucchini to make spaghetti noodles.
3. If you don't have a spiral slicer you can use a standard vegetable peeler to make fettuccine noodles. Just peel the zucchini like you normally would. After you remove all the green skin, just keep going. Turn the zucchini frequently to keep the noodles from getting too wide. Stop when you get to the seeds in the center. That part doesn't make very good noodles. Snack on that part as you prepare dinner or use it to sample your sauce as you make it!
4. Optional:Sprinkle the noodles with a generous pinch or two of salt and toss to coat. This will draw some of the moisture out of the noodles and make them more "al dente" and a little less zucchini-ish. Allow to sit for 10-15 minutes or more then drain off the water before serving. If you like, you can rinse them to remove the salt then dry them in a salad spinner. I just adjust the amount of salt in the sauce.
5. Combine all sauce ingredients including the 1/2 cup soaking water in a high-speed blender and blend to combine. Add more water, 2 tablespoons at a time, as needed to help blend smoothly. The sauce should be thick.
6. After blending the sauce on the Whole Foods setting of my blendtec blender to make it smooth, I blended again using the Soup setting to gently heat the sauce.
7. In a large bowl, toss the zucchini noodles with the marinara sauce. Serve immediately.
8. If you won't be eating all the spaghetti at once, refrigerate the noodles and sauce separately. If you mix them together the zucchini will release its juice and thin the sauce.
9. I found the sauce to be a little too salty. I don't know if I accidentally used 1/2 TABLESPOON of salt instead of 1/2 teaspoon (not that *I'd* ever do anything like that!) or if it just needs adjusting. To salvage the sauce I added a little turbinado sugar (a minimally processed sugar) since sweet balances salty. Worked perfectly! Next time I'll start with 1/4 teaspoon salt and add from there.
10. If you have all your ingredients at room temperature when you start, blending will warm the sauce, especially if you have a high speed blender. Use the Soup setting on a Blendtec, or blend for 90 seconds to two minutes. My zucchini were fresh out of the refrigerator so even though I warmed my sauce on the Soup setting, the noodles quickly cooled it. I wanted my spaghetti warmer, but didn't want to cook it. I wanted to preserve all the raw goodness, like enzymes, that can be destroyed by heat. So I put both the noodles and the sauce in the oven. I warmed the oven to just over 100 degrees then turned it off. I left the noodles and sauce in there for 20-30 minutes to warm up. You could do this in a dehydrator if you have one. You can also do this to warm up left overs. Just warm the noodles and sauce separately because the noodles will release juice as they warm. Be careful not to heat them too much or they'll get soggy.