Classic Marinara Sauce for Two!

March 19, 2018August 19, 2020 Red Rose & Honey1 Comment

Hi blog friends! Thanks for stopping by again. Today, I want to share a quick and simple recipe that I think everyone should know how to make — Marinara Sauce! This sauce can be served with pasta, meatballs, on pizza, eggplant parm, chicken parm and so much more. I use this recipe as a base to all red sauces I make too. Like many of the dishes I make, this one starts with olive oil, garlic and onions. I really believe that if you always have these three ingredients, you can whip up a tasty meal with whatever else you have in your kitchen.

Tea Kettle / Stand Mixer / Spoon Rest (similar)/ Pot/ Mason Jar (similar)/ Backsplash

I first started making my own sauce my junior year of college. I could often be found making a pot of sauce and baked ziti before my 8am class. Although I didn’t do very much meal prep in college, I did find it easy to make a head some dinner here and there so I could heat them up quickly after late classes. A girls’ gotta eat, right?

One of my first blogs ever was about my homemade sauce {check it out here} and reading that blog now is kind of funny. In that post I mention that oregano was my least favorite dried seasoning, but now I would say that I love oregano and don’t care for parsley. Sometimes I even leave parsley out. I also find it really funny that I mentioned I was making Mike {who is now my husband} strawberry shortcakes with homemade whip cream. He was the pickiest eater in college! I totally forgot that there was a time he ‘hated’ strawberries until I re-read that blog. Boy have times changed!

Now that I’ve taken you on a trip down memory lane, let’s get back to my current recipe! Although I haven’t changed much since I first started making sauce there is one change that I think was for the better. I almost always add very finely chopped or grated carrots. Carrots really cut down on the acidity of red sauce. I am a bit prone to heartburn and acid reflux. I have found that when I add carrots to my sauce it is much less likely upset my stomach. If you’re in the same boat, I definitely suggest you give carrots a try!

Disclaimer: I am participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. All opinions/recommendations are my own.

Classic Marinara Sauce

Servings: 2-4
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
2-3 small garlic cloves, finely minced
2-3 tbsp carrot, finely grated
14.5oz can petite diced tomatoes, unsalted*
8oz can tomato sauce, unsalted*
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp salt (more to taste)
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp dried parsley
1/4 tsp black pepper
*Can substitute 1 28oz can of unsalted tomato sauce/puree

Directions

-Saute onions in olive oil over medium/low heat until they’re fragrant and translucent, about 5-7 minutes
-Add carrots and saute for another 5-7 minutes
-Add garlic and sautee for about 3 minutes
-Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste and seasonings
-Once sauce starts to bubble, bring down to a simmer for 30 minutes or up to two hours.

Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread

March 14, 2018March 7, 2021 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

St. Patrick’s Day is a few days away and I am beyond excited to share my gluten-free Irish soda bread recipe. If you follow me on Instagram, you may know that I have been testing out this recipe for weeks. I set a goal for myself to share this recipe in time for St. Paddy’s day. After many failed attempts, I was definitely getting discouraged. I swear I was close to tears this past Sunday when I finally got this recipe right. I am so proud of it. I called my mom right away with a mouth full of bread.

Irish Soda Bread is supposed to an easy, throw together recipe. Its made of a few simple ingredients that were considered common in Irish households when this bread first came to be. I also learned that traditional Irish soda bread is plain – no raisins! Now that I got my recipe down pat, I do think it is pretty simple, but I am not sure how common it is to find buttermilk in someone’s fridge.

I haven’t had Irish soda bread in about 7 years, so I wasn’t sure what it should taste like. I started off with Ina Garten’s Irish Soda Bread recipe {substituting all purpose flour for GF flour} and it did not turn out well. Ina is amazing, so I am sure her recipe turns out great with regular all-purpose flour. I also tried a recipe that I received from someone who came to my bridal shower. I am all for experimenting when I am cooking, but doing the same with baking was a big challenge. This was also my first attempt ever at Irish soda bread.

My first few attempts lead to very dense bread that hardly resembled Irish soda bread. I wasn’t sure if it was due to my oven {which is gas}, the flour or my technique. I first noticed improvements when I chilled the butter, buttermilk and egg. Next, I saw improvement the longer I chilled the dough before baking. But the biggest improvement came from my choice of flours. King Arthur’s Measure for Measure flour was a game changer! I highly recommend using this flour for my recipe. It totally changed the texture of my bread.

I had been using Bob’s Redmill 1:1 flour {which has worked great in other recipes} but I found that it was what cause my bread to be dense and not bake evenly. I changed up the baking temperature and bake time, but it never seemed to bake correctly. Regardless of the flour this bread bakes with a lot of cracks, so I didn’t find it necessary to score the dough with an “x” before baking it {I tried that too}.

If you try my recipe, I would love to know! Please leave a comment below or on my Instagram @redroseandhoney.

Disclaimer: I am participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. All opinions/recommendations are my own.

Gluten-free Irish Soda Bread

Time: 2hr 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

1 cup butter milk (very cold)
1 egg (very cold)
2 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed (very cold)
2 cups gluten-free flour blend
1/8 cup coconut sugar
5/8 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup raisins

Directions

– Dice butter into small cubes (about 1/4 inch) and place in a small bowl.
– Beat egg in buttermilk with a fork.
– Place in butter and buttermilk mixture in the freezer for about 10 minutes to chill while you prepare dry ingredients. Do not let it freeze!
– In a stand mixer combine dry ingredients on low speed, adding raisins last.
– Slowly added buttermilk mixture and butter on low speed. Combine well, but don’t over mix. Dough should be sticky.
– Turn dough out onto floured surface (flour your hands too), lightly kneading dough to form a ball. Do not score with “x”
– Chill dough in fridge for at least 1 hour.
– Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.
– Once oven is ready, place dough on a parchment lined baking sheet and place in oven.
– Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees then turn heat down to 350, baking for another 30 minutes.
– Test bread with toothpick. Once it comes out clean, allow bread to cool slightly then transfer to cooling rack. Allow bread to cool for at least an hour before cutting.
– Serve plain, with powdered sugar or with Irish butter.

Brown Butter Cream Sauce

March 5, 2018August 19, 2020 Red Rose & HoneyLeave a comment

Hi friends! Before I share today’s recipe, I thought I would share a little bit about why I started this blog. I actually started my first blog in college when I started cooking for myself for the first time. I had a lot of fun trying out new recipes and cooking for my friends – including my now hubby! Maybe it was my cooking that actually won him over? I don’t claim to be a blogging expert (I am still trying to figure it out), but back then I had zero clue about blogging. I didn’t know anyone who had a blog and I didn’t follow any blogs. I just liked to cook and wanted to share my excitement for cooking somewhere. If I knew blogging and social media would become a huge industry I probably would have focused on my blog much sooner. Let’s face it, back then I had tons of free time (even if I didn’t realize it).

After college I started my gluten-free journey and thought my blog would be the perfect place to share my experience. I eventually decided to switch from Blogspot to WordPress.com (not realizing it was different from WordPress.org) and later created a second then a third blog. When you start a blog, you can blog about anything you want because it’s your space. For someone like me who is in a profession that requires close to zero creativity, a blog is a great way to actually be creative. I dabbled in some beauty blogging as I was on the search for a good skincare routine and had a few outfit posts, but I quickly learned that it’s important for your blog to have a focus in order to build a consistent following. Although I have posts about other topics from time to time, I’ve decided to focus on what I enjoy most…cooking! I’m not even sure my mom reads all of my blogs, so if you’re reading this, THANK YOU!

Now on to today’s recipe…

For Valentine’s Day I made this pasta dish inspired by a cooking class I took at Sur la Table. As I have mentioned in previous posts and on Instagram, I love to use a recipe or photo as my inspiration and create my own dish. The dish I made at Sur la Table was delicious, but super rich and creamy. That dish is a bit heavy to make on a regular basis, so I thought I would try to create something similar, but a bit lighter. This dinner turned out great. I especially love the flavor of the fresh sage! I haven’t cooked with sage much, but now I can’t get enough. I served this sauce with my favorite chickpea pasta. I have been loving this pasta because it has protein and is much more filling than traditional pasta.

Fresh garlic, onions and olive oil are staples in my kitchen. I’m convinced that if you have these three ingredients, you can make any meal taste delicious. Just like this one!

I don’t personally love dark meat, but I think this could be a great dish to try with chicken thighs. The dark meat would also add some more flavor.

Brown Butter Cream Sauce with Chicken

Servings: 4
Time: 45 minutes
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Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, minced
2lb Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast
1/2 cup white wine (such as pinot grigio)
3/4 – 1 cup unsalted chicken broth
1/2 heavy cream
1 tsp gluten-free all purpose flour
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cup frozen peas
fresh sage

Directions

Season chicken with salt, pepper and garlic and cut into bite sized pieces
Melt butter in olive oil over medium heat then add onion and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add chicken to the same pan, browning on both sides and cooking through, about 10 minutes.
Deglaze the pan with white wine and let it reduce by about half.
Mix-in flour, chicken broth and heavy cream. Continue stirring until sauce thickens (you can add more flour if you would like a heavier, thicker sauce)
Add garlic and frozen peas, stirring occasionally until peas have cooked through
Stir in fresh sage
Serve over your favorite pasta