Making marinara sauce is not only worth the time, it is the best way to no waste the vegetables going bad in your fridge. I have made so much marinara sauce in the past 4 years since my first garden and ever single time I make it a little different.

This is a basic how-to recipe for you to make it your own special sauce.

Ingredients

Generic recipe:

• 28 oz Whole peeled tomatoes (fresh or canned)
  • I like to use San Marzano tomatoes
• Olive oil
• 1 Tbsp Butter
• Onion, diced
• Garlic
• Seasoning: Any Italian seasoning, Crushed red pepper, salt, pepper to taste

Great additions:

• Italian sausage/ground beef/ground turkey/etc.
• Carrots
• Celery
• Bell pepper
• Squash/zucchini
• Mushrooms
  

Recipe

1. Dice any of the vegetables you plan to add into your marinara
   • You can dice them to be fine, or to be chunky. But keep in mind, we won’t be blending it*
2. Sautee your veggies in a large pot with olive oil, until cooked through. Salt them while cooking
3. Optional: If you are adding meat into your sauce, add it in with the cooked veggies to sauté, or cook it on the side and add in fully cooked. Your choice.
4. Add in your spices and garlic, sauté for less than 1 minute (don’t burn them)
5. Add in the tomatoes
   • I like to crush the tomato by hand before adding them into the pot
6. Let your marinara simmer for 30 minutes-3 hours, depending thick of a sauce you want
   • Add about 1/2 cup of water into the sauce if you plan to simmer for longer than 1 hour
   • Add in butter, any extra seasonings to taste, and potentially 1-2 Tbsp of sugar if there isn’t much sweetness in the marinara from the vegetables.

*Why not blending it? I have seen a lot of recipes from Italian cooks, and have heard a lot of them say that blending tomato seeds can add bitterness to the sauce. Feel free to blend it if that is your preference, but I like chunkier sauce and trust an Italians opinion on tomatoes.

my preferred marinara recipe:

• Tomatoes
• Carrots
• Onion
• Bell pepper
• Garlic
• Butter + Olive oil
• Seasonings: Basil, oregano, parsley, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, turmeric, pepper, salt

I find this combo makes my preferred marinara sauce. The carrots and the bell peppers cook down to add a sweetness to the dish that I really enjoy.

I also don’t typically make marinara sauce with meat because I tend to prefer a veggie-based marinara with meatballs/meat on the side. However, I was making this marinara to go into my baked ziti, so I cooked in Italian sausage to make it more of a ragu.

My sauce is more of a combo of a marinara, ragu, and pomodoro sauce – but I usually just call it a marinara sauce because I live in the US and the nuance is meaningless here for the most part.

If you are interested in learning the nuance of different Italian sauces: Here is a great explanation.

I make this recipe with tomatoes we grow in the garden, fresh canned tomatoes, store-bought tomatoes, and cherry tomatoes. This is such a versatile recipe, the perfect addition to any dish, and is very helpful in using up leftover vegetables.

Try pairing this marinara with some homemade pasta – you will not regret trying it out.

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