This homemade marinara sauce tastes like it came from your favorite Italian restaurant, but is surprisingly easy to make at home! You only need a handful of ingredients and about 30 minutes to make a rich, flavorful sauce that’s perfect for pasta, pizza, and dipping.
I'm not big on jarred pasta sauces. I'm human, so yeah, I buy them from time to time, but I grew up eating the homemade stuff, and it will always be my first choice. I realized recently that a lot of people are intimidated by homemade marinara sauce, which is kind of crazy because it's so easy to make! Today I'm going to show you how it's done.
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If you want your marinara sauce to taste like it came from your favorite Italian restaurant, a few things are key: more olive oil than you think you need, more garlic than you think you need, and, to be totally frank, less of everything else. Tomatoes, onion, fresh basil, and a little oregano are about it. Skip the long list of spices and hours of simmering. Simplicity is the secret to an incredible marinara sauce, and this one is super simple and can be ready in about 30 minutes.
Ingredients You'll Need
Below you'll find a list of ingredients in this recipe, with notes and substitutions. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post to see the full recipe, including the amount of each ingredient.
- Olive oil. This recipe uses quite a bit of olive oil, which does an important job of carrying the sauce's flavors, so I don't recommend skipping it or substituting another oil.
- Onion.
- Tomato paste. This helps thicken the sauce and add depth of flavor.
- Garlic. Don't be stingy here. I use five cloves, but feel free to add more if you're a serious garlic fiend!
- Red pepper flakes. The recipe only calls for a tiny bit, and you'll probably not even notice the heat, but they will add another layer of flavor. Feel free to skip them if you're concerned about the heat level.
- Tomatoes. You'll need both canned crushed and diced tomatoes.
- Sugar. Just a tiny bit, to cut the acidity of the tomatoes. Use organic sugar to keep the recipe vegan.
- Dried oregano.
- Salt and pepper.
- Fresh basil. Dried basil won't cut it for this recipe — use the fresh stuff.
How It's Made
Below is a detailed photo tutorial on how to make this dish. Scroll all the way down if you'd like to skip right to the recipe!
Step 1: Cook the onion. Heat your olive oil in a large pot, then add diced onion. Cook the onion for a few minutes while stirring occasionally, until it begins to soften.
Step 2: Cook the garlic and tomato paste. Add the tomato paste first, then sauté it with the onion until it darkens a bit. Next, add minced garlic and red pepper flakes. Continue to sauté the mixture for another minute, until it's very fragrant.
Step 3: Simmer. Now add both crushed and diced tomatoes, sugar, oregano, salt, and pepper. Simmer the sauce for 15 minutes or so, until it thickens a bit.
Step 4: Finish the sauce. Take the pot off the heat, then stir in the fresh basil. Season your marinara sauce with additional salt, if you'd like, and feel free to make any other seasoning adjustments you see fit.
Step 5: Serve. Your homemade marinara sauce is done and ready to enjoy! Ladle it over pasta or vegan meatballs, pile it on a pizza, or use it to dip some garlic bread!
Variations
- Red wine sauce. Add up to ½ cup of red wine after sautéing the garlic and tomato paste. Simmer it for 3 to 4 minutes to reduce it, then proceed with the recipe as written. This will add some intense, fruity flavor to the sauce. Be sure to check with Barnivore to ensure the wine you choose is vegan.
- Extra spicy marinara. For some additional heat, bump up the amount of red pepper flakes or stir in some calabrian chili paste.
- Creamy marinara. Finish the sauce with ¼ to ½ cup of full-fat coconut milk, cashew cream, or vegan heavy cream alternative.
Tip: Want to take your marinara to the next level? Give my truffle marinara a try!
Frequently Asked Questions
Yep! The recipe includes no gluten-containing ingredients.
You can, but you might find the sauce to be a bit too tart. Feel free to substitute your favorite natural sweetener, such as maple syrup. You can also experiment with adding a touch of pureed sweet veggies like carrots or sweet potatoes.
You can, but you'll need to peel and seed them, and the sauce may need a bit more simmering time. Canned tomatoes generally work better for marinara and produce more consistent results.
Homemade marinara sauce will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about 5 days, or in the freezer for about 3 months.
More Vegan Italian Classics
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📖 Recipe
Marinara Sauce
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 5 garlic cloves, minced
- Pinch red pepper flakes, or to taste
- 1 (28 ounce/794 gram) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (14 ounce/397 gram) can diced tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon organic granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ cup chopped fresh basil
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onion. Cook the onion for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it starts to soften and become translucent.
- Stir in the tomato paste. Sauté the paste with the onion for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until it starts to darken and caramelize. Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes, then cook the mixture for about 1 minute longer, stirring constantly, until very fragrant.
- Stir in the crushed and diced tomatoes, sugar, oregano, 1 teaspoon of salt, and black pepper. Raise the heat and bring the sauce to a boil, then reduce the heat and let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly and the flavors have melded.
- Remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the basil and season the sauce with additional salt to taste, if desired.
- Serve immediately or store for later.
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Nutrition
Can this be done with raw tomatoes? I don't like using canned.
Yup! You'll need to blanch, peel and seed them. You can find some instructions for doing that here: https://www.connoisseurusveg.com/pasta-pomodoro/ I'd use about 3 1/2 cups of diced and 3 1/2 cups of pureed.
1) Finely diced carrots added with the onions works great instead of sugar. I like the texture - they get nice and soft. I've seen it done many times in southern Italy. I've seen it used with sugar too!
2) If you don't use wine, try soaking some porcini or crimini mushrooms and use the STRAINED soaking liquid. VERY finely chop the mushrooms and throw them in too. Will add depth of flavor instead of the wine.
3) Try this with white rather than read wine.
ALL DELICIOUS
Those all sound like great tips! Thanks so much!!
I was looking for a nice, simple but tasty tomato sauce for my lasagne and this seemed to hit the mark. I made this sauce a few days ago to use in making lasagna. It turned out absolutely delicious and all my family loved this! Next time I definitely doubling or tripling this so I can freeze the leftovers. Thank you, Alissa, for sharing this with us!
Yay! I'm so glad it was a hit! Thanks Annette!
Be sure to get vegan wine. Regular wine is not.
White sugar isn't vegan either, but you can easily substitute date paste, date sugar, coconut sugar-even maple syrup or molasses.
That's why I specify organic sugar in the recipe. It's not processed with animal bone char like conventional sugar. It's vegan.
I'm looking for a marinara sauce to put on a pizza. I think I'm gonna use this one. Thanks.
This would go really nicely on pizza. Hope you enjoy it!
Can I use fresh tomatoes instead of tinned?
I have a glut of tomatoes!
Sure! I'd just blanch and peel them first.