Easy Homemade Marinara Sauce
This Homemade Marinara Sauce is perfect for weeknight dinners. It’s a simple recipe that is easy and cooks in about 30 minutes.
Servings: 4
Cost: 3.00
Ingredients
- 1 24-28 oz Jar or Can Pureed or Crushed Tomatoes
- ½ small Onion Cut into chunks
- 1 Small Carrot Peeled and cut into chunks
- 1 Rib of Celery Cut into chunks
- 2 Garlic Cloves
- 1 Tbs Olive Oil
- ¼-½ Cup Water
- ¼-½ Cup Fresh Herbs of Choice – Basil Parsley, Oregano
- 1 Piece Parmesan Cheese Rind Optional
- Salt to taste
- Pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place Onion, Carrot, Celery, and Garlic in a Food Processor and pulse until it’s finely chopped. You want it to be almost a paste.
- Add Olive Oil to a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Add vegetables, reduce to medium low, and sauté for about 5 minutes for them to soften. You don’t want it them to brown.
- Add Tomatoes to the pan, along with any herbs, salt and pepper and Parmesan Cheese rind (if using) and give it a stir.
- Add water to the empty tomato container, swish it around to get the rest of the tomatoes and add it to the pot.
- Once the mixture comes to a boil, cover the pot leaving the lid slightly ajar. This prevents splatters and lets the sauce thicken some cook down some.
- Reduce heat to low, and simmer for around 25-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Serve over your favorite gluten free pasta.
Notes
Sauce Tips
The Vegetables - Pulsing the vegetables in the food processor until they are almost a paste helps them cook quicker and gives the sauce some texture.
The Tomatoes - I really like Tomato Puree by Delallo. It has a deeper flavor than crushed tomatoes and is affordable. It is in some grocery stores and easily found online.
Fresh Herbs – I use a large sprig of fresh basil and parsley and a small spring of oregano. I drop them in whole and then remove them at the end of cooking. You could certainly chop and cook the fresh herbs in the sauce or add some fresh chopped herbs at the end.
Dried Herbs – If you’re using dried herbs, start off with a teaspoon or so total of Italian herbs and adjust them as needed.
Parmesan Rind – This optional ingredient adds depth of flavor to the sauce.
Keep it Covered – Keep the sauce mostly covered as it simmers. It likes to spatter.
Adding Water to the Sauce – Adding water to the sauce does a couple things. For one, it gets the last bit of tomatoes out of the jar or can so you don’t have any waste. Secondly, it keeps the sauce from getting too thick as it simmers.
Stir the Sauce – Give the sauce a good stir every 5 minutes or so. It keeps the veggie bits moving around the pot.
Cooking Time – Simmer sauce for about 25-30 minutes. Feel free to simmer it longer if needed to deepen the flavor even more.