I know it’s super easy just to open up a jar of store-bought marinara sauce and pour it over your pasta, and sometimes that’s all the energy we have (no shame), but hear me out. This easy marinara sauce recipe is surprisingly simple, super inexpensive, and you get to control the ingredients (great for those watching their sugar or sodium intake). Plus, homemade marinara sauce is very freezer-friendly, so you can make a double batch now and save the other half for the nights when you have no energy. It heats through in minutes and you’re good to go with zero effort!
What is Marinara Sauce?
Marinara sauce is a simple tomato-based pasta sauce. It’s characterized by its simple list of ingredients, which leads to an uncomplicated and bright tomato flavor. The texture of marinara sauce is usually very uniform without large chunks, which allows it to coat pasta evenly. Marinara sauce is most often used as a sauce for pasta, but it can also be used in many other dishes or as a dipping sauce.
Ingredients for Marinara Sauce
Marinara sauce in its most simple form is just puréed tomatoes (or passata) and a small amount of herbs and spices. I’ve added a couple more ingredients here to satisfy my American palate, but the recipe remains very simple. Here’s what you’ll need to make this marinara sauce recipe:
- Onion: The natural sugars in onion add a touch of sweetness to the sauce, which helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Garlic: Garlic pairs so well with tomato sauce that I just had to add some to round out the savory flavors. That being said, you can skip it for a more traditional marinara sauce flavor.
- Olive Oil: Olive oil helps the onion sauté without burning and it adds some body to the sauce.
- Crush Tomatoes: A large can of crushed tomatoes provides bulk to this sauce with a fairly smooth texture. If you can not get crushed tomatoes where you live, passata will also work.
- Tomato Paste: A little bit of tomato paste added to the sauce helps thicken it up and intensifies the tomato flavor.
- Herbs: Dried basil and oregano round out the flavor of this sauce and give it a subtle herbal finish.
- Brown Sugar: Adding sugar is a short cut with tomato sauce that helps balance the acidity without having to simmer the sauce for a long period of time. You can skip the brown sugar, but I love the balance it brings to the flavor.
- Salt: Salt is arguably the most important ingredient in any dish as it helps our tongue distinguish between different flavors. If your sauce is not properly salted, you will not be able to taste its full flavor.
What Kind of Tomatoes to Use for Marinara Sauce
This recipe is written using canned crushed tomatoes, which offer both convenience and a low price. While you most definitely can make marinara sauce using fresh tomatoes, that would require several more steps and a reformulation of the recipe to account for the extra water and flavor differences.
When choosing the canned crushed tomatoes for this recipe, keep in mind that there can be quite a drastic flavor difference between brands. If budget is your main concern, this recipe makes a great sauce even when using generic-brand canned tomatoes. But, if you want to get a bit fancier, you can opt for a premium or imported brand, or even buy whole canned San Marzano tomatoes and purée them yourself. Even when you opt for a more expensive canned tomato, this recipe is still very easy and budget-friendly, making it a great option for special occasions like date night in!
How to Use Marinara Sauce
We all know that marinara sauce is great on pasta, but you can use it for other recipes, as well! Here are some other ways to use this easy homemade marinara sauce:
- Use it on pizza for a lighter tomato flavor. It’s particularly great on Margherita pizzas.
- Use it as a dipping sauce for no knead focaccia bread or breadsticks.
- Combine it with other sauces like pesto or alfredo sauce to make a new pasta or dipping sauce.
- Add it to sandwiches, like Meatball Subs.
- Use it as a sauce for Chicken Parmesan.
- Use it as a base for soup by adding more seasoning, broth, and other items like pasta, meatballs, or vegetables.
How to Store And Reheat
As mentioned, this marinara sauce recipe freezes beautifully. After cooking the marinara sauce, transfer it to the refrigerator until completely chilled. The sauce will stay good in the refrigerator for 4-5 days, or you can transfer it to the freezer for longer storage. Just make sure the sauce is in a freezer-safe container, label and date it, and then freeze for up to three months. To reheat, simply transfer the frozen sauce to a saucepot and heat over medium-low, stirring often, until heated through.
Easy Marinara Sauce
Servings 8 (½ cup each)Ingredients
- 1 small yellow onion ($0.37)
- 2 cloves garlic ($0.16)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste ($0.20)
- 1 28oz. can crushed tomatoes ($1.89)
- 1/2 tsp dried basil ($0.05)
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano ($0.05)
- 1 tsp brown sugar (optional) ($0.02)
- 1 tsp salt (or to taste) ($0.05)
Instructions
- Dice the onion and mince the garlic. Add the onion, garlic, and olive oil to a sauce pot and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
- Add the tomato paste and continue to stir and cook for 3-5 minutes more, or until the tomato paste takes on a slightly darker color. This caramelizes the sugars in the tomato paste to give it a slightly sweeter and less acidic flavor.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, basil, oregano, brown sugar, and salt to the pot. Stir to combine and dissolve any tomato paste from the bottom of the pot.
- Allow the sauce to come to a gentle simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot, and allow the sauce to simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- After simmering for 30 minutes, taste the sauce and adjust the salt, sugar, or other seasonings to your liking. If the sauce is too acidic for your liking, you can let it simmer longer (about one hour) or add more sugar. Serve hot or refrigerate until ready to eat.
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How to Make Marinara Sauce – Step by Step Photos
Dice one yellow onion and mince two cloves of garlic. Add the onion, garlic, and 2 Tbsp olive oil to a sauce pot and sauté over medium heat until the onions are soft and translucent (about 5 minutes).
Add 2 Tbsp of tomato paste to the pot and continue to stir and cook for 3-5 minutes more, or until the tomato paste takes on a slightly darker color. This caramelizes the sugars in the tomato paste, adding a natural sweetness.
Finally, add one 28oz. can of crushed tomatoes, ½ tsp dried basil, ½ tsp dried oregano, 1 tsp brown sugar, and 1 tsp salt. Stir to combine and dissolve any tomato paste from the bottom of the pot. Allow the sauce to come to a gentle simmer.
Once simmering, turn the heat down to medium-low, partially cover the pot, and let the sauce simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Leaving a lid on the pot but slightly ajar can help prevent splatter.
After simmering for 30 minutes, give the marinara sauce a taste and adjust the salt or other herbs to your liking. If it’s still too acidic for your taste, you can either simmer it longer (around 1 hour total), or add more sugar.
Serve the homemade marinara sauce over pasta, use it for a dipping sauce, or freeze it for later!
Should I be stirring this at regular intervals other than the 30 minute check? This is my first time making sauce so I left my burner on low and made sure I had my lid just like in the picture to release steam, and yet at the 30 minute mark I walk into my kitchen to find an exploded volcano. I’d say a good cup or two of sauce was all over my counter and stovetop.
You know, you’ll get a sweeter sauce if you’re using fresh herbs. It makes a big difference, especially if you’ve got fresh basil. Both basil and oregano add bitter notes when dried.
Also, things being better the next day is totally typical of sauces – it lets the ingredients blend and meld. Chili and a lot of bean-based recipes work out that way,too.
~Kali
Anna – I usually pack and store my marinara in about 2-3 cup portions. They’re not single serve, but more like single recipe :) Plus that way they refrigerate and freeze faster and are almost modular, which allows for more room in your freezer. I hope that helps!
Hi Beth. Love this recipe. I usually use honey in my sauce, just because that’s what my nonna has always done. I really love marinara and have always made it in a similar way to this. I omit the tomato paste, just because I cbf and I always buy some fresh basil for stuff like this. I had never thought of using bay leaves in it and I really think that made a big difference.
I also like the idea of freezing it. I froze some last week and moved it into the fridge to defrost a few days ago and it didn’t make a difference at all. It was a solid brick! I ended up sticking it in the microwave but it still took a really long time to defrost. Would you reccomend putting it in single serve bags to freeze?
Make good note of the tomatoes you get. There is a difference between brands. If using fresh herbs, add them late in the game to preserve flavor. Go easy on the balsamic vinegar until you’re sure; once there’s too much it’s a pain to fix. Look into Contadina canned plum tomatoes, by far the best canned tomatoes on the market. Chop them yourself. Consider puree for a potentially very good, cheaper sauce, without bits of tomatoes, though. Not salted: so you can add your own salt. A slightly lower salt content makes a much brighter/fresher taste. Look at the ingradients: is it made from “paste”? Then no. Look for made from “tomatoes”, or, in case of generic, “tomato pulp”. This latter is actually among the best purees you can get.
Oh my! This was so, so good! I did make two changes, I used fresh herbs and also added a 1/2 cup of red wine. Amazing!
Wonderful recipe! Made it tonight~just needed a little salt. One recipe sauce just made enough for a double recipe of the lasagna roll ups! Thank you for a great blog!
And dinner #25 announced the hubby!
I hadn’t frozen it all, and I am sure glad I didn’t since it somehow tastes even better today!
I did throw 6 meatballs into every jar I froze, which makes it a Jar-o-Meal from the freezer lol.
I do not know if its traditional, and I am also not Italian, but it beats a can/jar of any sauce, fancy or not, by a mile Beth!
Dinner # 24
I am going to go out on a limb and say that it must be the Balsamic vinegar. It added that little je ne sais quoi! lol
I am cooling mine as we speak and putting it in mason jars to freeze for later. (250ml jars to be exact or one cup)
Spaghetti and Meatballs is my #1 favourite food! (Since my 1st birthday party, no foolin!)
Has anyone tried this in a crockpot? I guess I can saute the onion and garlic in the crockpot on high then add the other ingredients and put on low for I dunno, 3 hours?
Hi Beth,
just want to tell you that I just tried this recipe and I am really surprised about the taste. It was really good! Do you think that the balsamic vinegar and the brown sugar are the “secret” of this recipe? I’d tried so many of these and this one will be MY favorite one.
Thank you (sorry about the text, I am a french speaker from Québec)
Charlotte
This was definitely good. I didn’t have any balsalmic on hand so I omitted it and it still came out really well. I found that the sauce, like most good mixtures, tasted better and better each day. Overall it yielded about a serving more than a large jar of sauce from the store. I’ll be making this regularly for sure. Thanks!
You can also make the brown sugar and balsamic sweeter by adding them to the veggies before the tomatoes go in and reducing them a bit, too. This will intensify the sweetness.
ah, thank you so much! now i can’t wait to make it again! …that’s why i love the internet. you have a question and someone out there knows the answer :D
To deepen the flavor of your sauce closer to the restaurant style one trick is to “toast” the paste.
After you have caramelized your onions and such, add your paste before the other ingredients. Stir it into the oil well and cook it until it darkens in color. Then chuck in the other ingredients and proceed as usual.
I love making pasta sauce – it is so easy. And my house is one that can eat 6 1/2 cups in a week!