Simple Homemade Marinara Sauce 🌱 How to make a simply delicious & versatile marinara to enjoy with pasta, pizza, breadsticks, veggie meatballs, veggie burgers or anything else you love with tomatoes. GF & oil-free option.
This zesty, thick & rich sauce is so easy to make with just a few basic ingredients! In about 30 minutes or less, you’ll can have a perfect pot of marinara ready to spoon onto a bowl of vegan gnocchi or as the ideal pizza sauce for a classic vegan Margherita!
This post may contain affiliate links. I may earn form purchases at no additional cost to you.
What is marinara sauce?
I like to think of marinara as the foundation for almost any tomato-based pasta sauce. Made with the basic essential ingredients found in most red sauces – tomatoes, onions, garlic and herbs – marinara is an ideal vegan sauce for any dish that requires a rich Italian-style sauce. It’s perfect on pasta, pizza, casseroles, meatballs, as a dip for breadsticks or with veggies.
How to prepare this recipe
Here’s all you need to know to make a batch of this deliciously simple homemade marinara sauce.
Equipment
- 4 qt sauce pan with lid
- Kitchen knife
- Cutting board
- Measuring spoons
- Long handled spoon for stirring
Ingredients
- One 28 oz. can whole or crushed tomatoes
- 3 oz tomato paste (about 5 tablespoon)
- ½ fresh onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
I love this sauce just as it is, but if you want to bump up the flavor, you could add:
- Fresh or dried basil
- Fresh or dried oregano
- Dried Italian seasoning
- Bay leaves
- Red pepper flakes
🥕 Tip We like to add a bit of sugar to offset the acidity of the tomatoes. Other options you could use are maple syrup, agave nectar or date paste.
Instructions
- Pour olive oil into saucepan and place on stove over medium-high heat.
- Add onions and garlic, stir frequently, be careful not to let them burn. Reduce heat to medium. Add tomatoes. If using whole tomatoes, crush apart with a spoon or fork before cooking.
- Stir in tomato paste.
- Add balsamic vinegar.
- Stir in salt.
- Stir in half the sugar. Taste. Add more if needed.
- Cover pot. Reduce heat to low and allow sauce to simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Remove from heat & enjoy!
🥕Oil-free option If you prefer not to use oil, begin cooking onions and garlic in 2 tablespoon of water. Add more if needed.
That’s all there is to it! Think of all the delicious dishes you can use it with!
Enjoy this delicious marinara with our fabulous vegan zucchini ravioli.
This simple marinara is perfect with my vegan spinach ricotta shells.
Zesty rich marinara served with homemade vegan meatless meatballs.
🥕Here are a few other delicious vegan recipes you might enjoy!
- Great Homemade Vegan Pizza Dough
- Best Homemade Vegan Margherita Pizza
- Vegan Spinach Pesto with Pistachios
- Easy Vegan Parmesan Cheese
- Vegan Stuffed Shells with Spinach and Cheese
very vegan 🌱 very good
Simple Homemade Marinara Sauce
Equipment
- 4 qt sauce pan
Ingredients
- ½ yellow onion medium – diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 28 oz whole or crushed tomatoes canned
- 3 oz tomato paste about 5 tablespoon or ½ 6 oz can
- 2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
Instructions
- Pour olive oil into saucepan and place on stove over medium-high heat.
- Add onions and garlic, stir frequently, be careful not to let them burn. Reduce heat to medium.
- Add tomatoes. If using whole tomatoes, crush apart with a spoon or fork before cooking.
- Stir in tomato paste.
- Stir in balsamic vinegar.
- Stir in salt.
- Stir in half the sugar. Taste. Add more if needed.
- Cover pot with lid. Reduce heat to low and allow sauce to simmer for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- That's it! Your marinara is ready to use.
Notes
- Fresh or dried basil
- Fresh or dried oregano
- Dried Italian seasoning
- Bay leaves
- Red pepper flakes
Nutrition
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, please rate it in the comments below. Sharing your experience helps others decide if they should give it a try too. Thanks a bunch!🥕
 |
One simple sauce that you’ll love using with so many dishes!
Love this recipe … very authentic Italian! One other trick to bumping up the sugar that my (Italian) family used to do was to sauté some large chunks of carrots (let them carmelize a bit in the pan along with the onions). You cook them along with the sauce and them remove them when the sauce is done. The sauce picks up some sugar from the carrots that seems to cut the acidity.
Christine – I love the idea of including carrots to add just the right amount of sweet to offset the acidity of the tomatoes! What a simply brilliant idea. Carrots rule!🥕
Just discovered your recipes, and started to make the Marinara Sauce. And very thankful and appreciate for posting this recipes. I am sure it will be fantastic when making the pizza. next. Can’t wait to try others recipes.
Hi Mansueta, I’m so happy you found us! That marinara sauce is a constant fixture in our kitchen, we make it all the time. I do hope you enjoy it and would love to hear how your pizza turns out.💚 Thanks a bunch!🥕