This easy marinara sauce is actually the best tasting and easiest marinara I've ever tasted it. Use it on pizza, spaghetti, lasagna and more!
I've gotta admit I'm really proud of this one. The fresh tomatoes really do make a huge difference. They taste incredible. The tomato paste really drives the flavor depths home with the freshness of the ripe tomatoes. I love that it's so quick because I never want that extra step of making the sauce, but I know deep down it makes such a difference... And let me tell you it truly does. I've used this recipe with lasagna and it brought the lasagna up 10 notches. The best lasagna I've made to date and I've made quite a few lasagnas with jarred sauces, which are just fine, but if you're looking for the full flavor or want to entertain and show off your cooking skills to your in laws visiting for the weekend. This is the key right here.
Use it on pizza, flat bread, yes... lasagna, make your own pizza bagels for lunch (maybe even pre make then for kids lunches) moon-pies, zoodles, spaghetti... The list goes on! You won't regret the extra 15 minutes it took to make this sauce. In fact, make it earlier in the day to spread out the work and double batch it for later. It always tastes best fresh, but it'll still taste better than a jarred sauce if you store it frozen for later.
This recipe yields 2 1/2 cups of sauce
If you don't have eight romas here's a little guide to various tomatoes. No need to go out and buy romas! If your using smaller tomatoes like campari or snacking tomatoes, you'll want about 2 1/2 cups worth. If you have a larger tomatoes like beefsteak I'd use around 5 give or take of those big guys.
It really doesn't matter what onions you use at the end of the day. You'll traditionally see red yellow and white onions all used in italian cooking. Agsain, use what you have here. You know I always encourage this. If you don't have any onions and just want a direction. I'd recommend red. This is what I used and I wouldn't change a thing on the recipe. If you disagree, I'd like to hear why!
You can use fresh garlic if you'd like. 1 clove is approximate to 1 teaspoon of garlic powder. So you'll want 2 garlic cloves for this recipe.
The fact that you're making your own sauce is eco friendly. Yay! Go you! There's no extra shipments, no extra packaging being used so that automatically helps the planet. If you're using herbs or produce from your own garden, that's super major extra points for you! Gardens aren't easy to grow and learn. You've grown your own local produce and that's pretty cool! Not to add that the items especially tomatoes I've been able to grow in my own garden have been some of the tastiest and full flavored fruit and veggies I've tasted. Now y can't beat that can you!
With that said there's nothing wrong with going to the grocery store. That's when you look for orcanic or locally grown items. I love sprouts for this and Whole foods. I tend to lean towards Sprouts because my grocery receipt is ALWAYS less than when I go to Whole foods. So look for local if you can. Second to that look for organic. Costco is a great resource for organic affordable options.
I know I'm always skeptical when I se the organic label. I always thing, "is there any green washing here?" and "why is the price tag that much more if they're spending less on chemicals?" I started to really look for myself. Find the brands I see in the store. I'll snap a picture so I don't forget the names and google them. I'll see if they really look trustworthy. A big teller is how in depth does the company go on the practices and farming methods? Do they have pictures? The more transparent they are online, the more you can tell those values are actually important to that company.
Add 1/4 cup olive oil to your pan. Allow the pan to get to it's full heat temp of medium.
Dice the 1/2 onion and place in your pan. Stir when you see the onions start to get translucent or before they start to burn. Tip: Keep onions below the tomatoes (as you chop the tomatoes) to ensure they get cooked through
Add them into your pan as you chop them. Cut them in half, then cut those halves in half, then cut each of those pieces in half. Allow onions to stay at the bottom of your pan at this point.
Make sure to stir before they brown though. Allow them to cook until onions start to look more translucent. I'd suggest to start mixing once your half way done to completely done cutting your tomatoes.
Feel free to keep chunky if you’d like. You can use a mashing tool if you'd like, but I recommend using the spatula to save some dish work later. Less to clean! Continue to stir occasionally throughout the rest of the recipe steps.
This is what adds all that delicious flavor depth to your marinara sauce. Turn down the heat a bit if needed. You want your sauce to simmer with consistent bubbles, but not to the point it looks like boiling water.
Allow to stew and reduce on low for 5-10 minutes
Just some light chop work on the onions and tomatoes!
Zucchini Lasagna (coming soon)
Try my super yummy Pink Beet Pesto Zoodles. Or you can even swap the beet pesto for this marinara and make a yummy Marinara Zoodle dish for dinner.
Store in an airtight container or ziplock. Ziplocks allow for the marinara to defrost quicker. Place in a warm bowl of water. Reheat in a pan for 10 minutes or until heated all the way through on medium heat.
Get out a large to medium pan. Add 1/4 cup olive oil
Dice the 1/2 onion and place in your pan. Stir when you see the onions start to get translucent or before they start to burn. Tip: Keep onions below the tomatoes (as you chop the tomatoes) to ensure they get cooked through
Chop your 8 tomatoes in to eighths. Add them into your pan as you chop them. Stir occasionally. (refer to recipe step 3 for my notes on when to start stirring so the onions get a cook cook!)
Mash the tomatoes with your spatula (feel free to keep chunky if you’d like) once you're done cutting them.
Open and add your tomato paste. Mix in completely.
Add garlic, salt, pepper, oregano and sugar to the pan:
It won't need to, but you can allow the marinara to simmer and reduce on medium low to low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Thank you so much for choosing one of my recipes to cook today! I hope you enjoy the cooking process. I love to hear any and all recipe suggestions. Please reach out to me for any questions or comments! :)
Have a wonderful day!
Hanna
hannabeeeatin@gmail.com