Alissa's Marinara Sauce question...

[DotfromOz]

I'm assuming that 2-1/2 cups tomatoes means chopped tomatoes, as otherwise I'm trying to figure out how many tomatoes constitute a cupful.

Not that I'm that scared of trying the recipe and discovering that I've used more than it actually calls for, died and gone to tomato heaven...This from the woman who as a child used to get in trouble for sneaking out to the garden and eating all the ripe tomatoes she could find. Hey! I took vine-ripened very seriously indeed. ;) Still do, for that matter.

[flyinion]

In my experience usually if a recipe calls out something like that it is meaning chopped or some other physical moddification, smash it lol :eek: , so that you'd be able to stuff it in a measuring cup and measure it. Obviously you can't do that with a whole tomato. However I don't know if you have Alissa's DVD's but in it she mentions that she almost never measured ANYTHING until she had to write them down for the book. So with that in mind I say just eyeball it and get enough to be roughly 2 1/2 cups or so :D Personally my guess would be if you happen to be using normal size Roma's that about 4 or 5 should do it.

[rawpriestess]

I love Alissa's sauces, this is my favorite.

I chop up the tomatoes first, just to make sure I have enough.

But I use only 1 cup of fresh, and 1 cup of sundried (before soaking),

other than that, I keep it pretty much as is.

I also like it when it is warmed up in the dehydrator, takes that little raw bite out of the sauce, it also thickens it even more.

I actually spread it with a knife on the rawviolioes I make, and then dehydrate it, super yummy.

And I use it as a sauce on the barley burger patties I make (Alissa's meatloaf recipe made into burger rounds)

[DotfromOz]

Sounds more reasonable, RawP, as I was thinking that 2-1/2 cups of chopped tomatoes seemed like an awful lot even for a tomato freak like me.

I used to cook Asian food almost exclusively, so I'm pretty accustomed to gauging amounts of veggies for recipe-ish stuff. Think I'll just have at it and tinker with the amounts until I get something tasty.

Thanks for the suggestions, though, both of you.

[vegangelist]

adding the sundried tomatoes will give it a more "cooked" flavor if that is what you are going for. i haven't tried this particular recipe. but the marinara that i make has a mix of fresh and dried tomatoes and boy is it rich and yummy. i eat it cold out of the fridge with a spoon it is so yummy :)

kristi

[FinallyRaw]

This is one of my favorite recipes and I make it several times a week. I have NEVER measured any of the ingridients for this, I just throw in about 4 or 5 vine tomatoes and eyeball the rest. After I pulse for a lil bit I taste test it and throw in more spices if necessary. Just have fun with it and don't worry to much about how much of this and how much of that.