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Authentic Homemade Italian Marinara Sauce

September 28, 2016 By justalittlebitofbacon 64 Comments

Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. I receive a small commission at no cost to you when you make a purchase using my link. Click here for details.

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Italian marinara sauce is the basis of so many wonderful traditional recipes! It’s simple but flavorful, and homemade sauce will elevate any pasta dish you want to make.

You can grab a jarred sauce from the market, but why do that when making your own is easy, tastier, and can be made in a big batch for all your marinara sauce needs? A few common ingredients and a little time to bring them together into a harmonious whole is all you need.

My authentic Italian marinara sauce filling up a glass jar with some fresh, chopped parsley sprinkled on top of the sauce.

Hello, all!

Like you, I have grabbed a jar of marinara from the market when I’m in a rush, but I’m never quite happy with it. No matter what brand I try, it’s just not quite right. There is too much garlic, or too much oil, or it’s bland, or it’s too sweet.

So, I’m always happier when I have some homemade marinara sauce stacked up in my freezer. When I have some of my Italian marinara sauce on hand my dinner rush becomes no problem.

Easy Spinach Manicotti? All set! Chicken Parmesan? I’m ready. πŸ™‚ Just want a quick plate of pasta? I can defrost the sauce now. Chicken Cacciatore? Oh, yes.

Before I start talking about the secrets of my marinara sauce, I want to talk about the word authentic. This sauce is authentic to my family and to my traditions. Other families and other traditions may make a different sort of marinara which is authentic to them. I can only speak for myself and my heritage.

That said, onto the tips for my favorite, family recipe of Italian marinara sauce!

Ingredients for Italian marinara sauce - garlic, onions, carrots, and canned whole tomatoes.

Tip #1 – Canned Tomatoes are Best

No, really, they are!

Save your beautiful, fresh in-season tomatoes for Caprese Salad or Raw Tomato Sauce, pass by the out-of-season tomatoes , and grab some canned, whole tomatoes from the store.

San Marzano are considered to be the best, but can be hard to find. Or least actual Italian San Marzano tomatoes are hard to find. Tomatoes labeled San Marzano are pretty easy to find, but aren’t any better than the domestic tomatoes sitting near them on the shelf.

My advice is to pick a brand of tomatoes you enjoy and make sauce without worrying too much.

Tip #2 – Cook Your Aromatics Low and Slow

The key here is sweating the onions!

Marinara may be a fairly quick sauce to make (especially as compared to Bolognese), but undercooked or burnt onions are nobody’s friends. You are looking for sweet, soft onions and garlic and carrots.

Too high a heat and you’re likely to burn them before they fully soften. Too quick to add the tomatoes and you are going to have hard bits of onion in your sauce. Bleh!

This is especially important in an acidic, tomato-based sauce like marinara. Acid will keep the onions, and the rest of the aromatics, firm and make it more difficult for them to break down into the sauce if they are not soft and ready before you add the tomatoes.

Top down view of chopped onions, garlic, and carrots along with measured bowls of olive oil and dried herbs.

Tip #3 – Add Dried Herbs with the Aromatics

Dried herbs need time to fully integrate with the sauce.

Add dried herbs at the end and you will be hit with harsh notes of oregano and thyme which will taste separate from the rest of the ingredients. Furthermore, dried parley and dried basil? I don’t think they taste like much of anything, so I would recommend skipping them and sticking with dried herbs which retain their flavors.

However, fresh parsley and basil? Bring them on! Just add them at the end of cooking if you are serving the marinara sauce fresh, or after you’ve reheated the sauce if you are pulling it out of the freezer. In fact, fresh herbs are at their best when stirred in just as you are tossing the sauce with the pasta.

Tip #4 – Use Carrots to Tame Acidity and Add Sweetness

You can use sugar to do this, but why?

Unless you have a strong need for marinara RIGHT NOW and not a carrot in the house, always go for the natural sweetness of carrot over the refined sweetness of sugar.

You don’t need much, it takes only a moment to chop, and it won’t turn your sauce orange or throw off the flavor balance. One carrot for each two cans of tomatoes is just right.

Step by step photos on how to make Italian marinara sauce.

Tip #5 – Puree to Your Desired Chunkiness

This is where a hand blender comes in so handy! (I love my KitchenAid Hand Blender.)

Live in a household where everyone is into smooth sauces? Puree it smooth! Yes, I live in such a household. That’s why the photos are of smooooth sauce.

Like a rustic, chunky sauce? Give it a few, quick whirs to break up the tomatoes a bit. The great thing about making your sauce is you get to choose!

Extra tip – If you like a fairly chunky sauce, it’s nice to mince up the onions fairly finely. They will melt into the sauce better and not stand out.

Tip #6 – Don’t Worry, Be Happy

There are marinara sauce snobs out there who would like to tell you you’re doing it wrong. (Yes, even marinara sauce has snobs!)

That there is only one right way and it’s their way and don’t bother if you are going to do it differently. Now, there is nothing wrong with learning the history of foods and trying to make the best version of the recipe as possible.

But your best version may be a bit different from theirs, or from mine, and that’s okay. I just hope my tips and recipe help you to a marina sauce you will happily serve over pasta, ladle on pizza, and enjoy in lasagna.

Top down view of finished Italian marinara sauce in a glass jar, chopped parsley on top. Tomatoes, garlic, and parsley sprigs scattered about.

If you try my recipe for Italian Marinara Sauce, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! And I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

You can connect with me by subscribing to my emails (see the form in the sidebar or below the recipe card), liking my FACEBOOK page, or by following me on PINTEREST.

– Happy Eating, Annemarie

Authentic Italian marinara sauce is cooked low and slow to create a thick and flavorful sauce made in the manner of my family tradition. | justalittlebitofbacon.com
Print Recipe
4.89 from 18 votes

Authentic Italian Marinara Sauce

Authentic Italian marinara sauce is cooked low and slow to create a thick and flavorful sauce made in the manner of my family tradition.
Prep Time10 mins
Cook Time35 mins
Total Time45 mins
Course: Main
Cuisine: Italian
Keyword: homemade tomato sauce, marinara sauce
Servings: 8 servings
Calories: 220kcal
Author: justalittlebitofbacon

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 medium onion chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic minced
  • 1 carrot diced
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 28 oz cans whole peeled tomatoes

Instructions

  • In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium low heat until hot. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, salt, oregano, thyme. Reduce the heat to low and let the aromatics sweat and soften until the onions have no resistance to the edge of a spoon, 20-25 minutes.
  • Add the tomatoes. Increase the heat to bring the sauce to a simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, and breaking up the tomatoes with your spoon, for 15-20 minutes.
  • Either puree the sauce right in the pot with a hand blender or transfer it to a blender. Either way, puree the sauce until it's as smooth as you like it.

Notes

  • Nutrition Disclaimer: The nutritional information is an estimate and is included for informational purposes only. Please make your own calculations using your specific ingredients if you need an accurate calorie count.
  • Fresh Herbs: If you wish to add fresh herbs, such as basil or parsley, add them at the end of cooking or just before serving.
  • Getting to the Desired Smoothness: When pureeing, if you are not going for a smooth sauce pulse the blender a few times, then check to see if you're happy with the sauce, and pulse a few more times if you need to.
  • Doubling and Storing: The recipe can be doubled easily and freezes well. If you want to be able to defrost quickly, freeze the sauce in gallon sized resealable bags and lay it flat.

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Filed Under: 10 ingredients or less, fundamentals of italian cooking, gluten free, italian comfort food, italian recipes, main courses, popular, recipe, sauces and condiments, vegan, vegetable dishes, vegetarian, vegetarian mains Tagged With: carrots, garlic, onions, oregano, thyme, tomatoes

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Comments

  1. arian nazzari says

    October 25, 2020 at 11:33 am

    how many grams tomato this recipe needs? ( i don’t understand per oz)😬

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      October 25, 2020 at 2:23 pm

      Hi! FYI – I usually do conversions in google. Just type in 28 oz to gm (which I did) and I get ~800 gm for each can then x 2 which equals 1600 gm. I hope that helps!

      Reply
    • Laurel says

      November 23, 2020 at 2:07 pm

      28 ounces is equal to 794 grams

      Reply
      • justalittlebitofbacon says

        November 23, 2020 at 3:16 pm

        Yes, approximately 800.

        Reply
  2. Carol says

    October 17, 2020 at 5:23 pm

    5 stars
    This sauce is going in my FAVE go to box. The low and slow aromatics cooking makes the difference as does the carrot. Thank you for this wonderful sauce. It’s even greater with our fresh Marzano garden tomatoes.

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      October 18, 2020 at 9:39 am

      I’m glad you enjoyed the sauce! And awesome that you have Marzano tomatoes from your garden. I can’t grow a tomato to save my life so it’s canned ones for me. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  3. Jodi Franklin says

    July 28, 2020 at 11:00 pm

    5 stars
    This is amazing! I like to serve it with Italian garlic butter dip from an Italian restaurant in Kansas City that serves awesome chicken spiedini with this awesome sauce as an appetizer.

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      July 29, 2020 at 9:23 am

      Thank you! That sounds wonderful.

      Reply
  4. Joe Clara says

    June 7, 2020 at 9:31 am

    5 stars
    Your recipe is very close to my Italian family’s……..carrots are so much better for marinara than sugar but the recipe I have from my Northern Italian Grandmother does not use oregano or thyme, only salt and pepper added all thru the cooking process ( to taste) and fresh basil added at end of cooking. My recipe also uses celery added in with onions, carrots and garlic.

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      June 7, 2020 at 2:46 pm

      My grandmas were both from southern Italy, so that might be the difference! πŸ™‚ And you might like my pomodoro sauce, which uses only fresh basil for herbs.

      Reply
  5. Jennifer says

    May 20, 2020 at 12:29 am

    Hi! Could I triple this recipe for canning?

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      May 20, 2020 at 10:46 am

      Absolutely! I personally triple the tomatoes and scale down just a little on the onion/garlic/carrot when I’m making a big batch.

      Reply
  6. Patty says

    May 9, 2020 at 9:03 pm

    5 stars
    Very good. I ended up simmering for 2 hours and it turned out great. Going to refrigerate overnight and use for lasagna tomorrow.

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      May 9, 2020 at 10:38 pm

      Wonderful! Lasagna sounds yummy. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  7. Mike Romain says

    May 4, 2020 at 3:35 pm

    Might I suggest about 2 TBS Grated Parmesan and 2 TBS Chianti Wine. This recipe is on spot.

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      May 4, 2020 at 10:07 pm

      They sound like excellent additions! I’m always making variations myself depending on what I’m serving it with. πŸ™‚

      Reply
  8. Suzanne says

    April 20, 2020 at 9:42 pm

    4 stars
    Do you drain the canned tomatoes?

    Reply
    • justalittlebitofbacon says

      April 20, 2020 at 10:26 pm

      No, just add the tomatoes with the juice. I hope that helps!

      Reply
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Hello, I’m Annemarie

Welcome to my kitchen! I’m a Italian-American girl who loves fresh foods, local ingredients, and all sorts of comfort foods. Here you will find Mediterranean flavors and recipes from a New England perspective.

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