Looking for ideas on what to do with marinara sauce

We have a lot of marinara sauce in the freezer made from last year's crop of tomatoes and would like to use it with entrees not pastaor lasagna based. Preferences would be beef, veal, chicken or game hen and all ideas would be gratefully received. TIA

What a treasure trove ! My mother always cooked potatos and/or green beans or summer squash in marinara for a soupy dish served over toasted crusty bread, laced with a finishing olive oil or grated parm. She also poached her freshest eggs in the sauce and served it the same way - a Friday supper. Also a Friday dish was fish, usually cod poached or baked in a marinara that had been spiced up with fried onions, more garlic, hot pepper, capers w/wo black olives. We loved Fridays at our house.

Veal and/or eggplant parmesan
Use as the moistener in meatloaf with a bit of red wine
use as a base for fish or chicken that have been spiced up with Moroccan spices and bake, serve with a crusty peasant bread

Piling on Jo Ann's suggestions with chicken parmigiana or meatball subs.

I love Christina's ideas. Also, I have used marinara as part of a braise for short ribs.

We are only two and our sauce makes a quart. So when we make it, we put half of it on pasta dish, and rest goes in the fridge. We use it for lots of things; on pizza, on dishes like gnocchi that just use a little. The suggestions above are very good too.

Marinara sauce can also be used as a dip for bread, fried zucchini sticks, add to scrambled eggs. My mom used to make the marinara, scrambled egg thing, adding fresh parsley, for a sandwich filling....delicious.

Many thanks to all of you for the terrif ideas, now the dilemma is which to do first!

Hi Shel,

We do something similar to Christina with the beans, potatoes, and squash. We also add little meatballs and sometimes stuffed zucchini flowers to it and call it Giambatta. I make it for the children once a week.

I second the chicken parm. I will also throw extra sauce into beef or lamb stew or when I make sheppard's pie.

Soups are good too, like Minestrone or Manhattan Clam Chowder (or Cabbage soup if you happen to be on that diet...LOL). Or maybe even some Chili.

[Jenise]

Pour over browned chicken pieces and braise for an hour and a half.
Use as a warm base sauce on which a flattened, pan-fried Italian sausage is placed, serve with stir-fried zucchini. (A dish I remember fondly from Little Joe's off Broadway below Chavez Ravine--remember that place?)
Use as a dipping sauce for fried ravioli or calamari (not that any of us can afford to eat fried food).

(not that any of us can afford to eat fried food).

And yet, it doesn't stop us in this household.

[Jenise]

(not that any of us can afford to eat fried food).

And yet, it doesn't stop us in this household.

Didn't stop me from ordering the Moules Frites last night either.

Jenise, "Little Joe's", now there's a blast from the past! A must visit before any Dodger's game, more for the experience than the grub, and am pretty sure it had reached the century mark of being in biz before it finally closed its doors.
Re fried food, LOL, found a fantastic Cajun joint last night where any and every fried food item found in 'Nawlins' was on the menu and really good, so am resolving not to fry at home from now on!

[Jenise]

I knew you'd know Little Joe's! I spent half my childhood in that restaurant--my father, who entertained a lot for business, was a regular. It was the first place I ever had most of classics like Osso Buco and Veal Masala as well as pastas like tortellini, and in fact, it was the only Italian restaurant we ever went to so their version of you-name-it pretty much defined Italian food for me. I realize now that the food probably wasn't as great as I thought back then, but because of Little Joe's deli our family never knew green can parmesan cheese or Chef Boyardee.

Cacciatore?

Braciole

Get a copy of the Feb/Mar Food Network magazine, there is a fallout cook book in it with 50 ways to use pasta sauce. -RP

One thing we like to do to change up on marinara….other than adding red pepper flakes is to add small chunks of either goat cheese or boursin. Add it a bit at a time, stirring as you go until you get the consistancy and flavor you like. Too much will bind and overpower the sauce though.

Makes a nice topping for chicken or veal...or pasta, for that matter.

Richard