Easy Marinara Sauce | From Scratch

Welcome to my Blog and YouTube series called 'From Scratch'. While I do a ton of from-scratch meals, in this series, I want to focus on making items from scratch that you would typically buy at the store. Instead of meals, these things are more like ingredients or items people don't usually make in their own kitchen. I plan to post at least one new 'From Scratch' blog/video per month, so be sure you are subscribed so you never miss out!

Today I'm sharing a quick and easy recipe for making your own marinara sauce. You can use this sauce with some whole wheat pasta for a quick weeknight dinner, make a larger amount for your next lasagna, use it for pizza sauce or make a big batch and can or freeze it for later use! Today I'm making a small batch to use in the Italian stuffed bell peppers I'm making for dinner.

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Marinara Sauce

This recipe is very customizable, so play around with it. I'll start with the basic recipe, but scroll down for options. The recipe, as written, yields about 3 cups of sauce, but you can easily scale it up or down.

Ingredients

1-2 TBSP Olive Oil

1/2 yellow onion, chopped

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1-2 TBSP tomato paste

28 oz can of crushed tomatoes

2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 tsp kosher salt

handful of fresh basil, chopped

Preparation

• In a medium saucepan over medium heat, add oil and onion. Stir often until the onions are soft. (if the onions seem to want to burn, lower the heat and/or add a splash of water to the pan and continue to cook)

• Add garlic and stir around for about 30 seconds.

• Add tomato paste and stir for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

• Add tomatoes, Italian seasoning, and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

• Cook partially covered for 15-20 minutes.

• Remove from heat and stir in fresh basil.

Variations

Let's go ingredient by ingredient...

1. Olive oil - for anything Italian, this is the go-to oil, but you could also use avocado oil or grapeseed oil.

2. Yellow onion - use more or less onion to taste. Or substitute any sort of onion you have on hand (red onion, shallot, even scallions would work in a pinch)

3. Garlic cloves - use less if you are sensitive to it. If you don't have fresh garlic, you can use garlic powder instead. The flavor won't be quite as fresh or intense, but it will still be yummy.

4. Tomato paste - if you don't have any, just skip it. Paste adds an extra depth of tomato flavor, but the sauce will turn out fine without it.

5. Canned crushed tomatoes. You can use canned whole tomatoes (just chop them up), stewed tomatoes, or diced tomatoes. If you don't have a 28-oz can, use 2 15-oz cans, or use 1 15-oz can and halve the other ingredients to make a smaller batch. If it's tomato season and you have fresh tomatoes, blanch them to easily remove skin, squeeze them to remove pulp and seeds, then chop them up. Roma tomatoes are best for sauce. Keep in mind that because the tomatoes are fresh, you will have to cook the sauce longer. Plan to double the cooking time at a minimum.

6. Italian seasoning - if you don't have any, use dried basil and dried oregano. Add extra oregano for pizza sauce.

7. Fresh basil - if you don't have any, use a tablespoon of pesto, or just up the amount of dried basil (add an extra teaspoon. You will miss out on that fresh basil flavor, but it will still be great.

Additional Add-Ins

There are so many things you can add to your sauce to build in extra flavor. Here are some of my favorites:

• chopped sundried tomatoes

• chopped mushrooms

• chopped bell pepper

• red pepper flakes

• parsley

• 1 -2 TBSP grated parmesan cheese

• splash of balsamic vinegar

• ground meat or sausage to make a meat sauce

  
  

Serving Ideas

Use in any instance where you would use store-bought spaghetti sauce.

• Over pasta (spaghetti, ravioli, tortellini).

• In the rice mixture for stuffed bell peppers.

• Over your eggplant or chicken parmesan.

• As a pizza sauce.

• In your lasagna.

• As a dip for chicken fingers.

• In a crockpot of meatballs.

Storage

Once cooled, transfer to an airtight container. You can store marinara sauce in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for about 3 months.

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