With just a few pantry staples, you can make this easy homemade pasta sauce with tomato sauce in about 30 minutes. Perfect over pasta, chicken, or as a base for countless meals, it's a simple way to a delicious dinner. Plus, it freezes beautifully-so you'll always have a batch ready for busy weeknights. Skip the jar and make your own-it's fresher, more flavorful, and budget-friendly!
A friend recently commented that the famous Italian restaurant jarred marinara sauce her kids liked was so expensive. I served her some of my homemade pasta sauce with tomato sauce and she loved it. Plus, it can be made for less than half of the cost of the stuff she's been buying. Store bought sauces are fine in a pinch, but skip the jars and make your own marinara sauce for great taste and savings.
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Why You'll Love Pasta Sauce With Tomato Sauce
- Basic pantry items - Just tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes, and a few other basics.
- Tasty and easy - Call it spaghetti sauce, pasta sauce, simple tomato sauce, or marinara. A staple in the kitchen.
- Freezes great - Make ahead and freeze it in batches for fast meals.
Ingredients You'll Need
Here are the ingredients for my go-to homemade pasta sauce. See recipe card for all ingredients and quantities.
- Tomato sauce - Plain canned or jarred tomato sauce.
- Crushed tomatoes - Some chef's swear by eaty San Marzano tomatoes as a top choice for flavorful pasta sauce but there are other good options. See more on tomatoes below.
- Oil - use extra virgin olive oil to saute the onion and garlic in for great flavor and healthy fat.
- Onion - onion gives flavor depth and a base for the sauce. A foundational ingredient for soups, stews, sauces and many recipes.
- Garlic - Fresh garlic is best and a head keeps in a cool pantry for some time. You can use the peeled refrigerated cloves but be sure they are fresh.
- Herbs - Dried herbs makes this easy. Use plain dried basil or a dried Italian seasoning blend. A little fresh basil or oregano in addition to dried herbs for more flavor at the end is niece too, if you have them.
- Spices - Ground anise seed or ground fennel seed make a terrific and unexpected flavor addition to this pasta sauce recipe. Optional but delicious!
- Red wine: while adding wine is optional, it's a great flavor and aroma enhancer to the sauce. For a small quantity, I cook with the inexpensive airline-sized bottles.
Please see the recipe card for measurements, salt, black pepper, and red pepper.
Chef's Tip on tomatoes: Real San Marzano tomatoes are identified by the "certified D.O.P" label on every can. They cost a little more than regular tomatoes but many believe they are worth it. Unfortunately, according to this culinary expert there are counterfeit San Marzano tomatoes in stores (I know, crazy to think) so don't be fooled by labeling (or a higher price). Here are the California-grown tomatoes I usually buy, named one of the best canned tomatoes in 2022.
Substitutions and Variations
Here's ways to change up homemade pasta sauce:
- Make it a smooth sauce: puree until smooth in a blender, food processor or with an immersion blender
- Make it a meat sauce: add a couple of links of pre-cooked sausage ground fine in a food processor or chopped fine with a chef's knife, or use browned ground beef. Cooked ground bison works well too.
- Alcohol-free: leave out the wine.
- Only have whole tomatoes - Strain the liquid from the can and reserve in a bowl. Over the sink or a bowl (it's messy), split the tomatoes with your fingers and remove any seeds, then briefly puree with liquid in a blender, food processor, or chop by hand.
Don't puree smooth. Leave some texture. This works in place of crushed tomatoes.
How to Make Pasta Sauce with Tomato Sauce
This homemade marinara sauce recipe is simple in both ingredients and instruction. First, cook onion in the oil until softened and fragrant, then add the garlic and cook briefly. Use a heavy pot like a Dutch oven as they conduct heat evenly and cook over lower temperatures efficiently.
Lastly, taste the sauce. It has too much acidity for you, add a little sugar or neutral flavored sweetener like monk fruit. It's ready to serve or cool and freeze.
Chef's tip on cooking with wine: I use the mini bottles of wine to cook with and save the full-sized bottles for dinner. They are great to keep in the pantry for adding a little to this marinara recipe or for deglazing a pan for a sauce, and they are inexpensive. The cooking rule is use one you would drink, not "cooking wines". Don't add it at the end. It needs to simmer with the sauce.
Serving Suggestions
- Over a big bowl of pasta topped with fresh herbs and parmesan cheese
- For making Chicken Parmesan
- Use it as a dipping sauce
- As a pizza sauce
- Make spicy stovetop shrimp, Italian style
- Simmer Italian meatballs in it
Storing and Freezing Pasta Sauce
The yield for this recipe is about 5 cups of sauce. Homemade tomato marinara keeps in the refrigerator 5 days or freeze for a few months in an airtight container.
Recipe FAQs
Because they have lower acidity (so more sweetness), less seeds, thicker flesh, and terrific taste. They can cost more, so you decide if they are worth it. There are delicious tomatoes from other brands that are not San Marzano. See my Chef's tip in the post.
Spaghetti sauce generally has meat in it and it cooks longer than marinara, which makes it heartier and more complex in flavor. Marinara typically does not contain meat. Think about the thick richness of bolognese sauce, and try this recipe with ground bison.
It means mariner-style, as in the style of Italian sailors. It was their preferred sauce on long voyages so says history and it's still a classic Italian and Italian-American sauce.
More Tomato Sauce Recipes
Love tomato marinara? Us too. And here are a few more delicious ideas.
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If you make this pasta sauce, please comment and let me know, and if you loved it, please give it a 5 star rating! They really help other readers and I love hearing from you.
📖 Recipe
Easy Homemade Pasta Sauce
Equipment
- Large pot or Dutch Oven 4-5 quarts
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 3 large garlic cloves minced, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried basil or Italian herb blend
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground anise seed or fennel seed
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper more or less to your heat preferences
- ¼ teaspoon sea salt
- 28 ounces can crushed tomatoes
- 15 ounces can tomato sauce
- ¼ cup red wine optional, use the airline size bottles
- 1 handful fresh chopped basil leaves optional
Instructions
Cook the onion, garlic, spices, herbs
- Heat olive oil in a medium pot over medium low heat and add onion. Cook until onion is soft and translucent. Add garlic, dried herbs, ground anise seed, black pepper, red pepper, salt, and cook another 2 minutes to allow flavors to blend.
Add tomatoes and simmer
- Add crushed tomatoes and sauce, and wine if using. Cover and simmer sauce for 20 minutes until flavors are blended. For a smoother sauce, puree briefly in blender if desired. If using fresh chopped basil leaves, stir in at the end.
Notes
Nutrition
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