I’m in love with fresh, homemade marinara sauce! Ever since we started growing our own vegetables, it has been so much fun creating recipes and meals using fresh ingredients from our backyard!
If you haven’t tried making your own marinara sauce yet, don’t worry! It’s not that hard. I think I imagined it taking hours but it really doesn’t. As long as you have a food processor or a good blender, this recipe can be made in about 45 minutes.
And if you want to make a big batch, you can “can” it or store it in the freezer for future use!
Simple Homemade Marinara Sauce
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 30 minutes
Total time: 45 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients:
12-15 medium sized tomatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, quartered
5 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
2 tsp dried oregano
1-2 tsp salt plus more to taste
1 tsp freshly ground pepper plus more to taste
Directions:
- In a large pot, boil enough water to cover all tomatoes. Once boiling, add the tomatoes.
- Allow them to boil for 1-3 minutes. Once the skin begins to peel, remove them one at a time using a ladle into a large bowl of cold water.
- Once all tomatoes have been transferred into the cold water, drain and rinse them under cold water until they are cool enough to handle.
- Remove the tomato skins and stems, and cut the tomatoes in half or quarters and set aside.
- Add the olive oil to a large pot and heat over medium heat.
- Place the onion and garlic in the food processor until finely chopped.*
- Add the chopped onion, garlic and a pinch of salt to the oil and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile, place the tomatoes into the food processor and puree (about 30 seconds)
- Add the tomato puree, oregano and salt and pepper to taste to the pot with the onions and garlic and let simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or so. You want to allow the water to evaporate to create a thicker sauce.
- Once sauce is to your desired thickness, remove from heat and stir in basil. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper if desired.
- Serve immediately on your favourite pasta or use it as pizza sauce. Otherwise, store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to one week or in the freezer for 1-2 months. You can also use this sauce as the base for your favourite spaghetti sauce, like this Lentil Bolognese Sauce.
Notes:
*Alternatively, if you prefer a chunkier sauce, you can dice and chop the garlic by hand.
xoxo
Stefanie
August 27, 2018 at 11:21 pmThanks for the recipe! We’re growing our own tomatoes right now I have more tomatoes than I know what to do with so homemade marinara sounds perfect! I’ll be making this tomorrow.