Marinara sauce is a simple, flavorful and versatile sauce that's perfect for pasta, pizza or dipping. With just a few ingredients, this homemade marinara sauce is simmered to deepen and blend the flavors and thicken the sauce. The bonus is that it's super easy and your kitchen will smell divine!
My whole family gets excited when they walk in the door and the house smells like homemade marinara sauce simmering. This sauce is slow cooked, so it just fills your whole kitchen and house with the heavenly smell of cooking tomatoes and herbs. Becuase marinara sauce is easy to make, it's a great replacement for jarred pasta/pizza sauce. Jarred sauce has gotten super expensive and too many of them contain added sugar.
Homemade marinara sauce is so versatile too. You can use it for dipping, on pizza, or over any pasta. I use it for many dishes including my easy weeknight Portobello Mushroom Parmesan recipe. Make a batch on Sunday just like our grandmas did and use it throughout the week for pastas and also on pizza night!
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Ingredients
- Crushed tomatoes
- Tomato sauce
- Red wine (optional)
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Dried oregano
- Bay leaves
- Crushed red pepper
- Salt and black pepper
- Carrot
- Fresh basil (optional for serving)
See recipe card for quantities.
Wait, why a carrot?
Yes, you read that right. There's a carrot in this slow cooked sauce. A lot of times, there is added sugar in jarred pasta sauce and also homemade pasta sauce recipes. Sugar is used to balance the acidity in the tomatoes. I also tried the baking soda method once. Once. That was a complete fail. No one wants pasta sauce to taste like hint of baking soda. Then, I read that some old, traditional Italian marinara recipes used carrots to add some sweetness and cut the acidity in the sauce. I tried it and was hooked. I now always add a carrot to my homemade marinara sauce.
Substitutions
- Red wine - instead of red wine, you can use red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar or you can skip it entirely.
- Carrot - if you don't have a carrot, you can substitute one teaspoon of sugar. If you also aren't using red wine, then you could substitute grape juice for both the red wine and carrot.
Storage
Store homemade marinara sauce in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 5-7 days.
Next Level Tips
- If you drink red wine, don't skip the red wine. It's a perfect reason to open a bottle and also pour yourself a glass! But it also adds a little extra something to the marinara sauce. It's definitely not something found in jarred marinara sauce, so it will definitely take your sauce to the next level.
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with [this recipe]:
Easy Homemade Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 can crushed tomatoes (28 ounce) unsalted
- 2 cans tomato sauce (14 ounce each) unsalted
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon dried oregano
- 2 bay leaves
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
- 1 medium carrot peeled
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 ounces red wine
- fresh basil for garnish
Instructions
- Heat large pasta pot or Dutch oven pot over medium heat.
- Add the olive oil and garlic and sauté until fragrant but not golden. About 1-2 minutes.
- Add the crushed red pepper and sauté for another 30 seconds.
- Next, add the remaining ingredients. The carrot can go in as a whole, peeled carrot.
- Bring the sauce to a low boil.
- After the sauce comes to a boil, turn the heat down and simmer for a minimum of two hours.
- After two hours, remove the bay leaves and the carrot. Discard the bay leaves but feel free to snack on the carrot. It will be nice and soft.
- Taste and add more salt if needed. [It's best to wait until the flavors have had a chance to blend before adding more salt if needed.]
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Peggy says
Tracy, what adjustments would you suggest if using fresh tomatoes instead of canned crushed tomatoes? I struggle to get the depth of flavor I'm looking for when making sauce from fresh tomatoes.
Tracy @ Next Level Baker says
Hi Peggy! For marinara sauce, I highly recommend using the canned crushed tomatoes especially if you're looking for that extra depth of flavor! It's hard to duplicate that canned crushed tomato flavor and texture at home. They've also already been heated, pealed and seeded so that cuts down on the work too.