How to Make Basic Marinara Sauce
If you have arrived at this post from StumbleUpon, welcome!
Please take the time to check out some of my other posts, leave a comment or sign up for updates. Enjoy!
There are as many recipes for tomato pasta sauce as there are Italian grandmothers. My Sicilian grandmother used to make her sauce every year from the tomatoes in her garden. Much of the time the sauce had meat in it but I don’t think it was ever exactly the same twice. A child of the depression, my grandmother would throw into the pot whatever she had on hand; scraps of a roast, pieces of cooked pork, sausages, rinds of parmesan cheese. You never knew what you’d find in the sauce, but it was always good.
This is really a base pasta sauce recipe, meant to adapt to whatever you want it to be. Like meat in your sauce? Add a tough cut and let it cook down to make a Bolognese. Want to keep it vegetarian? Enjoy the recipe as it is or add some diced up vegetables. Like Pasta alla Norma? Add red chili flakes and diced eggplant to the sauce. Mushrooms or meatballs, it’s all up to you.
While the photo shows the sauce in a jar, I didn’t can this sauce. There are only so many ways to photograph tomato sauce, and stacks of tupperware just don’t make that pretty of a picture. But the sauce does freeze well, so you can enjoy the taste of freshly made sauce a few months from now, once the weather turns cold.
Basic Marinara Sauce
Printable (PDF) Recipe
2 large yellow onions, peeled and diced
2 Tbsp olive oil
5-6 cloves of garlic, minced (about 2 Tbsp)
2 Tbsp dried herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, etc)*
1/2 cup red wine
12 cups peeled and seeded fresh ripe tomatoes**
salt and pepper to taste
In a large soup pot, heat up the olive oil. Add the onions and cook slowly, on medium heat until they start to caramelize. They should be evenly brown and soft. Cooking them this way brings out the natural sweetness in the onions. Add the garlic and dried herbs and cook for 5 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the 1/2 cup of red wine and cook for 2 minutes more. Add the tomatoes and their juice and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook on low, stirring occasionally for about 2 hours. Add salt and pepper to taste.
*Dried herbs hold their flavor much longer than fresh herbs so when slow cooking. If you want to use fresh herbs, add them at then end of the cooking process, just before serving.
**If you don’t have fresh tomatoes, you can use 2 (28 oz) cans of crushed tomatoes, 1 (28 oz) can of whole tomatoes and 1 (6 oz) can of tomato paste. When I use canned tomatoes, I always add a couple tablespoons of sugar to counteract the acidity of the canned tomatoes. I find I don’t have to add any sugar with the ripe tomatoes from my garden.
Other ideas for the end-of summer-glut of tomatoes:
How to Peel and Seed Fresh Tomatoes
Fresh Tomato Soup
Grilled Eggplant and Zucchini Parmesan
Amendment:
I’ve had a few people comment (some of them not posted here because they were not nice) that the name “Marinara” refers to a tomato sauce with seafood in it. Just about every definition I could find disputes this. I hope the information below clears up any confusion.
The New Food Lover’s Companion
Even more interesting from a historical perspective was this one from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-marinara-sauce.htm
“Marinara sauce originated with sailors in Naples in the 16th century, after the Spaniards introduced the tomato to their neighboring countries. The word marinara is derived from marinaro, which is Italian for “of the sea.” Because of this, many people mistakenly believe marinara sauce includes some type of fish or seafood.
However, marinara sauce loosely translates as “the sauce of the sailors,” because it was a meatless sauce extensively used on sailing ships before modern refrigeration techniques were invented. The lack of meat and the sheer simplicity of making tasty marinara sauce were particularly appealing to the cooks on board sailing ships, because the high acid content of the tomatoes and the absence of any type of meat fat resulted in a sauce which would not easily spoil.”
Finally http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/marinara defines it as:
Main Entry: mar·i·na·ra
Pronunciation: \ˌmer-ə-ˈner-ə, -ˈnär-\
Function: adjective
Etymology: Italian (alla) marinara, literally, in sailor style
Date: 1948
: made with tomatoes, onions, garlic, and spices <marinara sauce>; also : served with marinara sauce <spaghetti marinara>
Homemade sauce is the only way to go! Love your recipe!
An online called Juliet Mae Spices makes a great Italian Herb Blend. It would go perfectly in thie sauce.
I eat a lot of pasta, but I’m usually too lazy to make my own sauce. Yet, this seems easy enough to make a lot of and store!
We had an old Italian guy come by one day when we were making sauce, and he said we should put some of our fresh brown figs (from our huge tree) in the sauce. so we did, breaking them up as they heated through. They gave a real
meaty texture to the sauce, and an intriguing depth of flavor,
This is great! Have you tried canning it?
I haven’t. I don’t really have much canning experience past watching my mom and grandma do it. But it DOES freeze well.
Love the new look, keep up the great work the number of visitors must have increased?.
Written nice and clean.And a nice recipe that everyone should learn.Props
Exactly how I make it except add:
Bacon crumbs (cooked)
Sliced Green Pimento stuffed Olives
Thanks for posting!
Also, how can you be a former chef. It is like riding a bike isn’t it?
True, true, it is kinda like riding a bike. I just don’t get paid to cook any more. It’s only for fun now.
Thanks for the recipe. Being a lover of pasta, this marinara sauce will go a long way for me! If you don’t mind I’d love to direct our Foodista readers over to your blog. Just add your choice of widget to this post and you’re all set!
Sounds delicious.
This sounds like a recipe that might work for me. I have canned gallons of tomato juice simply because I haven’t found a good tomato sauce or marinara that sounded good. This one sounds like my hubby will like it very much! Thanks!
Nauri-
Is it just juice or have you canned whole tomatoes? You really need whole or chopped tomatoes for the right texture. If it’s already pureed, you might try making my tomato soup recipe with it.
I’ve always resorted to juice because I could never find a sauce-type recipe I thought I’d want to try. Now, I am going to try this recipe. If it’s a hit with hubby, I’ll be making this and seeing how well it cans. We use a lot of the juice, but he wishes I’d make marinara sauce – now, I can =)
Simple classic marinara recipe. Thanks for posting this!
I love making pasta sauce to keep in the freezer. The one I usually make uses canned tomatoes since I end up making it in the winter months. I really do need to use some of the fabulous tomatoes that are available this time of year for sauce. Great recipe and love your blog.
I’m in the process of simmering down my sauce so I jumped online to find a recipe to double check if what I was doing (without a recipe) was correct. . . oh goodie I’m doing it right and now I’ll print this out so I’ll remember for next time. I appreciate the star note about dried herbs vs. fresh. Ciao
cool beans. thanks for the easy home made marinara sauce recipe. Now I’m off to go cook it.
From your basic marina sauce, you get so many ways to use it. I was one of the first things I taught my kids to make. With that tool in their belt they can make just about anything. This version is very close to mine.
Thanks
Doug
That marinara sauce looks good! It is a great way to enjoy the perfectly ripe tomatoes!
This is a great marinara sauce recipe! We all know that everyone should have a great recipe for sauce in their recipe file.
I smiled when I read your blogpost about wanting your food blog to be successful and watching every comment, every hit, etc. I can totally relate!
You have a great blog. I will be back.
Glad to see that someone else sees the absolute value in caramelizing the onions for a good marinara — totally worth the effort. And so timely… with all those great tomatoes out there on the vine!
Yes, caramelizing is worth it! When I was a chef, we used to make the sauce in a giant stock pot, caramelizing about 5lbs of onions at once. It took forever, but it made all the difference.
Wow! Thank you! I have always always wanted to make my own marinara sauce! This is so helpful I could eat this all of the time!
Thanks everyone for the nice comments! Please let me know how the sauce turns out if you make it.
great recipe. i live in bologna, and love the bolognese ragu. your recipe helps, cheers,,
I love cooking and experimenting, rarely follow recipes and people always rave about my cooking. In all that time, however, I have never made marinara sauce from scratch…for some reason, I found the thought intimidating. I would instead buy something like a 5-cheese jarred sauce and dress it up the way I wanted. I’m going to use your recipe this weekend, however – not only does this sound simple, but your matter-of-fact approach in your writing gave me just the boost I needed to get off my duff and do this. So thanks! Btw, I arrived here through the StumbleUpon network, and I’ll definitely be thumbing this up and passing it on to others. Great site!
Thanks so much! Yes, it’s very easy and you can still “dress it up” any way you want! Let me know how it comes out and thanks for “stumbling” my blog!
Great sauce recipe! I love how it’s highly adaptable to personal preferences!
Wow, i love your blog. this basic marinara sauce sounds great. I’ll have to try it. If only i had a garden…
Please correct your post
this is a Napoli or napolitana sauce (Italian tomato based sauce)
Marinara refers to a sauce with seafood in it (usually tomato but not always. Often served as a pasta marinara)
I’ve put an addendum at the bottom of the post. I’ve never seen Marinara sauce served with seafood, but yours is the second such comment I’ve received so I thought I’d do a little research.
The term marinara came to mean a tomato sauce (in America at least) quite some years ago
hence your not having seen it served with seafood
My self and many other chefs are trying to revert back to using the original meanings
of the terms “Marinara: Seafood” and “Napoli/Napolitana: Italian Tomato based sauce”
It kind of irks me when i order a Pasta Marinara, expecting seafood, and don’t get it
I appreciate your help in re-educating the food industry
De-lish! My mouth is watering.
RE: Amendment: while studying abroad and visiting Venice with a large group of students, we hit a local restaurant and our vegetarian friend ordered marinara. Sure enough, it came loaded with seafood. “Sorry– I thought marinara was plain red sauce,” she said. “Why does it have seafood in it?”
The proprietor scolded her. “Marinara! Mare means sea! Of course it has seafood in it!”
So be forewarned if you ever go to Italy– order marinara, get seafood, like the other commenter Chef noted. Order Napoli.
Interesting! I’m actually going to Rome next month and had already planned on trying to resolve this debate while there. I’m still not sure there is a “right” answer. I have a feeling it just comes down to what it means to you in your experience.
great!! will have to try it and jar some up.
I read your comments. I was looking at this recipe to see how to make this sauce and leave out the seafood! So…thanks! I for one, am glad to see it! Thumbs up in Stumble upon!
~Beth
I made this Marinara this weekend using tomatoes from my garden and my family really enjoyed it — especially the kids, since they were eating sauce made from the tomatoes they planted by seed.
Out of laziness, I didn’t peel them. Those little skins were a pain to eat — will not make that mistake twice.
I’ve also enjoyed the historical perspective on the name “Marinara.” Food history is fascinating.
Thanks!
Thanks Myra! Next time, if you do peel the tomatoes, get the kids involved. It’s easy, slippery, and messy, but fun!
This recipe looks delicious.. and so easy! I’m going to give it a whirl and look forward to the results.
Thanks for sharing,
Pieter
I’ll be trying this recipe next time I can.
Regarding the marinara debate, I don’t know where these guys are coming from, but Marinara does NOT refer to a seafood based dish. There was a sailor who’s name was Marinaro or something like that and he typically added shrimp and clams to his recipe, however those were addendum’s to the original recipe.
Hope that clears up some of the drama that you’re receiving!
I enjoy cooking and finding new methods and recipes to try.Thanks
Hello Former Chef,
Your sauce looks and sounds delicious. Do you know if I need to modify the cooking time if I am planning on “canning” it (25 min @11lbs pressure)? I just finished picking my toms off the vine – another successful garden season!
Cheers, CG of Washington
I wish I knew but I have no experience with pressure cooking, sorry!
You are spot on – authentic marinara is a meatless sauce – this includes sauce devoid of fish. It is purely vegetables and herbs.
You are right about this sauce, and people who thinks it must have seafood in it is wrong, cmon… just because of the name mar-inara?.
As you note at the beginning of your post, this is the very basic foundation of a marinara sauce. From here people can enhance it in whatever direction desired and create their own versions depending on what it will be served on.
Hi, Looks yummy! Could you please tell me if I can make this without the wine? Thank you.
Yes, you can leave out the wine no problem.
Good ideas, glad to use them. To reduce the acid in my sauce, I use 1/4 tsp baking soda. Also, rather than white sugar, try brown sugar. I have also tossed in 1 whole large carrot (peeled).
I understand and respect your passionate committment but my research does not bear out that seafood was ever served in the sauce. Please read the definitions I posted in my addendum.