and serve or incorporate into another recipe.
Here’s the basic recipe, along with five variations it. The
sauce also pops up in other places in this book, such as with
my meatballs (here).

DRIED VERSUS FRESH HERBS

Most recipes for marinara sauce call for either

dried   oregano or  Italian seasoning,  which   is  mostly

dried   oregano and basil.  My  immediate   thought was

replace  the     dried   herbs   with    fresh.  Imagine     my

surprise    when    I   found   after   cooking two sauces  side

by  side    with    dried   oregano in  one and fresh   leaves  in

the  other,  there   was     barely  any     difference  at  all!

Why was that?

Many    chefs   assert  that    fresh   herbs   are superior    to

dried    herbs,  and     they’re     right—most  of  the     time.

Most    herbs   contain flavor  compounds   that    are more

volatile    than    water,  which   means   that    drying  process

that    removes water   also    ends    up  removing    flavor.

But  it’s    not     always  the     case,   and     here’s  why:

savory  herbs   that    tend    to  grow    in  hot,    relatively  dry

climates—like    oregano,    for     instance—have   flavor

compounds   that    are stable  at  high    temperatures    and

are  well   contained   within  the leaf.   They    have    to  be,