Our classic Marinara Sauce recipe only uses 6 ingredients and can be made with fresh or canned tomatoes. It only takes 20 minutes to make, and is so delicious and easy you'll never buy it in a jar again.
Everyone loves Italian recipes! Make sure to try Chicken Marsala Pasta, Panna Cotta, Meatballs Arrabbiata, or Creamy Zuppa Toscana!
Ditch the jar for our 20-Minute Marinara Sauce.
Ditch the jar for our 20-Minute Marinara Sauce. First of all, what is marinara sauce? So many people get it confused with pizza sauce or spaghetti sauce. They're all tomato based sauces, but Spaghetti sauce has more seasoning, and may contain meat or veggies and pizza sauce has more herbs. Marinara is the simplest, but done right, it's bursting with flavor and tastes so fresh. Making it from scratch us healthier, tastes better, made in one pot, and is ready in just 20 minutes! Make a large batch and keep it portioned in the freezer.
Use it as a dip for our favorite Cheesy Breadsticks or Stromboli, or serve over Chicken Parmesan, Manicotti, Meatball Subs, or just over some pasta with fresh basil and parmesan cheese. The options are endless!
How to make Marinara Sauce:
Crush Tomatoes: Pour the can of San Marzano tomatoes in a large bowl and crush them with your hands. If using fresh tomatoes, blanch them and remove the skins before crushing.
Simmer: Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat then add garlic, stirring constantly. Add crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, sugar, and salt then turn down to simmer. Allow this quick marinara sauce to cook for at least 15-20 minutes, until the oil on the top is a deep orange color.
Make Ahead and Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: Let the classic marinara sauce cool completely then store in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
To Freeze: Freeze marinara in an airtight container or freezer safe bag for up to 4 months.
Use Marinara Sauce In:
- Meatball Subs
- Chicken Parmesan
- Toasted Ravioli
- Homemade Egg Noodles
- Spaghetti Pie
- Cheesy Garlic Breadsticks
- Pizza
- One Pan Meatball Casserole
- Lasagna Soup
- Pizza Casserole
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Recipe
Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- 28 ounce can whole San Marzano tomatoes*
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon Dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Crush the tomatoes with your hands into a large bowl. Set aside.
- Add oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Once hot, add the garlic. Stir and then add the crushed tomatoes, oregano, basil, sugar, and salt. Reduce to a simmer and cook for at least 15-20 minutes, until the oil on the surface turns a deep orange.
Notes
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe August 2019. Updated September 2024.
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So delicious and amazing. Definitely worth the extra 20 minutes to make vs store bought. Thank you for this recipe!
Just curios, can I not just use a can of crushed tomatoes? Would it not be the same?
Crushed tomatoes would work great
Great! Easy and delish! Use it over everything including making sausage and peppers in the crock pot.
I made fresh marinara sauce just dicing the tomatoes and removing the core, placed in a crock pot and simmered for 4 hours with the oregano, Italian seasoning, bay leaf. sugar and crushed garlic. Once the tomatoes had broken down I let it cool for 3 hours and put into a food processor and blended it to a nice consistency, placed in quart jars and in the refrigerator. I will use this on a pizza, for spaghetti sauce with hamburger added and of course chicken marinara. My daughter in law came over for a short visit and tasted the marina sauce while still warm and her reply was “Mom you should market this it is better tasting than any of the bottled stuff”. so will make again and freeze it next time.
Used this making Eggplant Parm tonight, best ever and so easy to make.
Delicious easy and 100 times better than jarred sauce, thank you!
Wow what a great sauce. Thank you for sharing. This will be added to my favorites
Is the garlic put in whole, crushed, minced, etc?
Minced.
I have made this recipe several times with canned tomatoes. It was delicious. Much better than any jar sauce. I use it for pasta, meat balls , lasagna and any posts dish everybody loves it wait.
Thanks for sharing! I agree, it is so much better than what you get from the store!
Is the 13 carbs for the whole jar? Csn i use a sugar …keto friendly substitute?
There are 13g of carbs in each serving. Tomatoes are primary carbohydrates so that makes sense :). There is 1 teaspoon of sugar in the recipe (which would contain 4 grams of carbs, totaling less than 1 gram of refined sugar per cup of sauce). You could certainly use a sugar substitute if you wanted to. Hope that helps.
Just to chime in – Lauren’s numbers seem to be based on 3 servings per batch. I use sauce more sparingly and find that I get more like 4 to 5. The entire batch has about 46g carbs. I use a packet of splenda for a double batch to cut out the 4g sugar.