Smack Your Jar Sauce with Mojo

If you’ve ever paid $25 for a bowl of spaghetti at a restaurant, you know it 1) better knock your socks off; and 2) come hand-delivered by a hot young thing drizzled in red sauce. Since the odds of landing both desires in your own kitchen are slim, focus on just one: recreating a marinara with chef-style flavor (you can work on the presentation later). If you’re like us, you probably don’t have the man hours or the lackeys to pull off a five-hour day in front of the stove on a quest for authentic taste. Our compromise? Face-lifting a jarred sauce. After numerous attempts at improving recipes, we discovered that mastering an authentic taste takes just 3 ingredients that are most likely already in your pantry. Fifteen minutes later, you’ll have high-end results without no trace of a screw-off top.

The Jarred Marinara Makeover

• Olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 2 to 4 whole dried red chili peppers
• 1 jar marinara sauce
• 1 box spaghetti

1. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a 12-inch saute pan over low heat. Add the smashed garlic and chili peppers and cook slowly, infusing the flavors into the oil. When the garlic starts to brown, pull it out of the oil, along with the chili, using a slotted spoon. Add the marinara sauce to the oil and increase heat to medium. Simmer. The crispy brown garlic can be used to top the pasta dish if you save it.
2. Boil a large pot of water for the pasta, add a tablespoon of kosher salt. Add spaghetti to the water and cook for 5 minutes. Before the pasta is done, use tongs to remove it from the boiling water and add it directly to the simmering sauce.
3. Add all of the pasta to the sauce and continue to cook until the pasta is al dente. If the sauce gets too thick or dry, add 1/2 cup of the pasta water at a time to thin out. We usually end up adding 1 to 2 cups, and cook the pasta for about 10 additional minutes.
4. Hit it with a fresh microplane of Parmesan and serve.