Mama Ying's Marinara

Today I started to feel homesick. I've been living on my own for the past ten years, but my parent's home was always an hour away.

A couple of things went through my head. Why am I here and what the hell am I going to do with this idle time? As my thoughts raced to frantically put a life plan together, I started to miss home.

A Saturday could easily be filled with shopping with my mom, doing laundry while watching True Blood or Entourage, and then later eating dinner with my family.

Today's Saturday was not that Saturday. I'm very far away from home, so in order to get over the loneliness I decide to cook my mom's food.

Most Filipino kids miss their mom's adobo, but I think I make Chicken adobo better than my mom ;)

However, her pasta marinara recipe is my absolute favorite. It's the only recipe that I needed to know before I left for college. It's a base sauce to make pasta, eggplant parmigiana, lasagna, and all other dishes not Filipino!

She makes a marinara that's better than most restaurants that will charge you $23 for it. This recipe should cost you about $5, depending on how the quality of your ingredients. If she makes like a bucket of this, I can eat it for a whole week, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Roma tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, and salt is all you need. Oh, wait. Add about a tablespoon of butter. I learned this from an Anthony Bourdain episode. The butter is the game changer, and if you have buffalo mozzarella. Take some pieces that sexiness and put it in.

Ying Marinara : Serves 2

8 Roma tomatoes

5 Basil leaves

5 Cloves of Diced Garlic

Tablespoon of butter

Palmful of salt

Enough Olive Oil to coat the pan

Boil the tomatoes for about 30 seconds. When you take the tomatoes out of the water rinse them with cool water, and peel the skin off. Take your peeled tomatoes and put them in a large bowl. With your own bare hands squeeze those tomatoes like your are squeezing a big pair of boobies. After you are done it should look more like a sauce with not a lot of lumps in it.

Dice your garlic and saute them in your olive oil for about a minute. Pour your tomato sauce in. Let it simmer for about ten minutes. Add your salt, and feel free to add more if you want. Tear your basil leaves into little bits and then throw in into the pan. Let it simmer for another then minutes.

As soon as your pasta is almost cooked add that tablespoon of butter. Take your noodles after they have been boiled to al dente and then add them to the sauce. Mix your noodles and your sauce for about a minute or two and then add your cheese. Keep stirring till the cheese is melted.

Enjoy :)