TO MARINARA, WITH LOVE

Dear Marinara,

Thank you, marinara sauce, for memories of meals shared with family. For the joy I feel as I dip and taste you on the tip of my bread. For waking me on Sunday mornings with your fragrant aroma as Mom swirled you in a pot on the stove.

Dear marinara,

You look and taste fantastic topping a plate of rigatoni.

I love you Marinara. You’re quite a dish! You hold your own alongside ziti, penne, spaghetti, and the big Rigatoni. So versatile too. Add a bit of oregano and you make a tasty pizza sauce; add a dollop to cold ricotta and whoolah! Easy creamy sauce made table side!

I like that you’re easy. You cook up fast, too. You were the first meal I made for Roy, date night at Waverley Ave, when I was 18. I smile when I think of you and how easy you cook up with pasta in a fry pan the next morning.

Marinara, it’s no wonder we’re so intimate. Most nights Mom served a small dish of pasta before dinner—most likely with you, Marinara, but sometimes with Bolognese, or Ragu—other homemade sauces made by Mom. I loved you best, Marinara.

Truth be told, Marinara, I grew up only eating three types of pasta sauce—homemade Marinara, Bolognese, or Ragu. Cream sauces came later in life, as did aglio e olio. Pasta with butter was—and still is—a comfort food I eat when I’m sick and my stomach needs TLC.

So thank you Marinara. For belly-filling and soul-filling bowls of pasta, toasted english muffin pizzas, and topping my eggplant parm. And thank you for giving me a quick and easy meal my kids loved back then and my grandkids love today.

Most of all, Marinara, thank you for the memory I have of standing next to Mom, as I learned to make my first Marinara sauce.

What’s your favorite sauce? Please let me know!

With love and devotion,

Mamina