This Marinara Sauce is slowly simmered with classic ingredients like garlic, onion, and basil and makes the most delicious sauce for all of your pasta dishes.
Marinara Sauce
Bookmark this recipe as your go-to recipe for a classic marinara sauce. This Sauce recipe is perfect for busy nights because it requires very little active preparation time. Slow simmered, this sauce takes on flavor as it cooks low and slow.
If you are lucky enough to have leftovers of this classic marinara sauce, then you can easily store this sauce for up to 3 days and use it on your favorite meatball recipe, lasagna, pizza, or pasta recipe.
Table of contents
What I love about this recipe:
- It’s a great marinara sauce for pizza
- this recipe requires very little prep time
- this sauce can be used on so many different recipes, so you can really make several meals from this one sauce
- it can be stored for 3 days and frozen for longer
FAQs
They both have similar ingredients and are simmered for a long time, but spaghetti sauce often has other added ingredients like vegetables, meat, or both.
You can add other spices, like Italian seasoning, oregano, and a hot spice like red pepper flakes. Another idea is to add cooked Italian sausage, cooked hamburger, or cooked vegetables and simmer on low heat for about 1 hour – stirring occasionally
Make-Ahead and Storage:
- store leftover sauce covered and in the refrigerator for up to 3 days
- freeze sauce for up to 3 months
Tips and Tricks
- cook this sauce in a large pot over low heat
- don’t forget to stir this sauce occasionally. I have been known to walk away from my simmering sauce for too long and the bottom ends up burning which in turn, ruins the flavor of the entire batch
- you can chop the onion up and add it back into the sauce if you want that extra flavor
- to spice up the sauce add red pepper flakes
Variations to Marinara Sauce:
- Cheesy Sauce – After the sauce has cooked, sprinkle in some Parmesan cheese and stir in
- Creamy Sauce – Add some heavy cream to your cooked sauce and stir in
- Spicy Sauce – Add red pepper flakes to your sauce at the beginning of your recipe and let it simmer with other ingredients
- Chunky sauce – use cans of diced tomatoes
- Smooth Sauce – Blend all of the ingredients after they have cooked and cooled for a bit
Ingredients You’ll Need for Marinara Sauce:
Crushed Tomatoes – I used crushed tomatoes but if you want a chunkier sauce you can use cans of whole peeled tomatoes instead
Sweet Onion – I like to use Vidalia Onions for most of my recipes, but you can substitute a yellow onion
Garlic Cloves – Peel but do not cut the garlic
Olive Oil – you can use classic or extra virgin
Basil – this sauce has a basil flavor, but if you do not like basil or prefer oregano, then you can substitute it
Salt – I feel like salt is necessary for this sauce, but I like salt – a lot. Taste it after it cooks, and decide if you want to add salt. Then, salt to taste
How to Make Marinara Sauce:
- In a large pot, add the cans of tomato
- Peel and quarter the onions and add them to the tomatoes
- Peel garlic and add that
- Pour dried basil into the sauce
- Mix everything
- Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and simmer for about 45 minutes – stirring occasionally
- Remove the onions and crush the garlic
- Stir again to combine
- Taste to see if it needs salt, and then add salt if needed to taste
Equipment
- 1 large pot with lid
Ingredients
- 2 28 oz. crushed tomato cans
- 2 medium Vidalia onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- In a large pot, add the cans of tomato
- Peel and quarter the onions and add them to the tomatoes
- Peel garlic and add to sauce
- Finally, add dried basil
- Mix everything
- Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer and simmer for about 45 minutes – stirring occasionally
- Remove the onions and crush the garlic
- Stir again to combine
- Taste to see if it needs salt, and then add salt if needed to taste
Notes
Tips and Tricks
- cook this sauce in a large pot over low heat
- don’t forget to stir this sauce occasionally. I have been known to walk away from my simmering sauce for too long and the bottom ends up burning which in turn, ruins the flavor of the entire batch
- you can chop the onion up and add it back into the sauce if you want that extra flavor
- to spice up the sauce add red pepper flakes
Storage
- store leftovers covered in the fridge for up to 3 days
- Freeze sauce for up to 3 months
