easy homemade marinara sauce

While there are plenty of perfectly serviceable jarred sauces, making your own is honestly just kind of fun. Marinara is great on pasta, chicken, pizza, or as a dipping sauce for mozzarella sticks or garlic knots. It’s traditionally made with only simmered tomatoes and spices, and while this recipe stays mostly true to that, we’ll add a thing or two for flavor.

If you’ve been here for a while, you know that I think canned tomatoes are underrated. While every can is a little different in terms of acidity, they’re still more consistent than fresh tomatoes. Here in the UK, shop tomatoes tend to taste of nothing unless you’re willing to shell out for the fancy ones, but this recipe requires way too much tomato for that. In addition to that, while I like my marinara to have some texture, I don’t like it chunky, so buying already-smooth tomato means less work for me (and you).

This sauce is rich, sweet, and flavorful. There are enough dried herbs that it’s not boring, but not so much they strangle the tomato. It’s great in lasagna, on pizza, or tossed with noodles and parmesan.

Be careful with the heat on this one—if you leave it too high to simmer, the sauce will form big bubbles that will pop and splatter your cabinets. (Can you tell I learned this the hard way?)

I love making this one because it requires so little babysitting. As soon as it’s simmering, I can wander off, leave it to do its thing, and not think about it until the timer goes off. Besides, you and your pasta sauce deserve a little more effort than opening a can.

directions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat (I used my dutch oven). Add onion and cook until translucent, 5-7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste, oregano, and basil and cook for a minute or two, just to get them all comfortable with each other.
   
2. Add crushed tomatoes (or sauce), salt, and brown sugar and stir well. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 30-45 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened, darkened, and tastes rich and sweet. Stir occasionally. If needed, add more salt or sugar. Take off the heat and stir in a knob of butter and a splash of balsamic vinegar.